Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Up, up, and away: relative importance of horizontal and vertical escape from predators for survival and senescence

Animals fleeing a potential predator can escape horizontally or vertically, although vertical flight is more expensive than horizontal flight. The ability to escape in three dimensions by flying animals has been hypothesized to result in greater survival and eventually slower senescence than in animals only fleeing in two dimensions. In a comparative study of flight initiation distance in 69 species of birds when approached by a human, I found that the amount of variance explained by flight initiation distance was more than four times as large for the horizontal than the vertical component of perch height when taking flight. The slope of the relationship between horizontal distance and flight initiation distance (horizontal slope) increased with increasing body mass across species, whereas the slope of the relationship between vertical distance and flight initiation distance (vertical slope) decreased with increasing body mass. Therefore, there was a negative relationship between horizontal and vertical slope, although this negative relationship was significantly less steep than expected for a perfect trade‐off. The horizontal slope decreased with increasing density of the habitat from grassland over shrub to forest, whereas that was not the case for the vertical slope. Adult survival rate increased and rate of senescence (longevity adjusted for survival rate, body mass and sampling effort) decreased with increasing vertical, but not with horizontal slope, consistent with the prediction that vertical escape indeed provides a means of reducing the impact of predation.
Diagnostic classification in patients with suspected deep venous thrombosis: physicians' judgement or a decision rule?

BACKGROUND Clinical decision rules can aid in referral decisions for ultrasonography in patients suspected of having deep venous thrombosis (DVT), but physicians are not always convinced of their usefulness and rely on their own judgement. AIM To compare the performance of a clinical decision rule with the probability of DVT presence as estimated by GPs. DESIGN OF STUDY Cross-sectional survey. SETTING Primary care practices in The Netherlands. METHOD GPs (n = 300) estimated the probability of the presence of DVT (range 0-100%) and calculated the score for the clinical decision rule in 1028 consecutive patients with suspected DVT. The clinical decision rule uses a threshold of three points and so, for the GP estimates, thresholds were introduced at 10% and 20%. If scores were below these estimates, it was not considered necessary to refer patients for further examination. Differences between the clinical decision rule and the GP estimates were calculated; this is discrimination (c-statistic) and classification of patients. RESULTS Data of 1002 patients were eligible for analysis. DVT was observed in 136 (14%) patients. Both the clinical decision rule and GP estimates had good discriminative power (c-statistic of 0.80 and 0.82 respectively). Fewer patients were referred when using the clinical decision rule compared with a referral decision based on GP estimates: 51% versus 79% and 65% (thresholds at 10% and 20% respectively). Both strategies missed a similar and low proportion of patients who did have DVT (range 1.4-2.0%). CONCLUSION In patients suspected of DVT both GP estimates and a clinical decision rule can safely discriminate in patients with and without DVT. However, fewer patients are referred for ultrasonography when GPs rely on a clinical decision rule to guide their decision making.
Statistical cerebrovascular segmentation in three-dimensional rotational angiography based on maximum intensity projections

Segmentation of three-dimensional rotational angiography (3D-RA) can provide quantitative 3D morphological information of vasculature. The expectation maximization-(EM-) based segmentation techniques have been widely used in the medical image processing community, because of the implementation simplicity, and computational efficiency of the approach. In a brain 3D-RA, vascular regions usually occupy a very small proportion (around 1%) inside an entire image volume. This severe imbalance between the intensity distributions of vessels and background can lead to inaccurate statistical modeling in the EM-based segmentation methods, and thus adversely affect the segmentation quality for 3D-RA. In this paper we present a new method for the extraction of vasculature in 3D-RA images. The new method is fully automatic and computationally efficient. As compared with the original 3D-RA volume, there is a larger proportion (around 20%) of vessels in its corresponding maximum intensity projection (MIP) image. The proposed method exploits this property to increase the accuracy of statistical modeling with the EM algorithm. The algorithm takes an iterative approach to compiling the 3D vascular segmentation progressively with the segmentation of MIP images along the three principal axes, and use a winner-takes-all strategy to combine the results obtained along individual axes. Experimental results on 12 3D-RA clinical datasets indicate that the segmentations obtained by the new method exhibit a high degree of agreement to the ground truth segmentations and are comparable to those produced by the manual optimal global thresholding method.
New extracellular thermostable oxalate oxidase produced from endophytic Ochrobactrum intermedium CL6: Purification and biochemical characterization

ABSTRACT Oxalate oxidase (EC 1.2.3.4) catalyzes the oxidative cleavage of oxalate to carbon dioxide with the reduction of molecular oxygen to hydrogen peroxide. Oxalate oxidase found its application in clinical assay for oxalate in blood and urine. This study describes the purification and biochemical characterization of an oxalate oxidase produced from an endophytic bacterium, Ochrobactrum intermedium CL6. The cell-free fermentation broth was subjected to two-step enzyme purification, which resulted in a 58.74-fold purification with 83% recovery. Specific activity of the final purified enzyme was 26.78 U mg−1 protein. The enzyme displayed an optimum pH and temperature of 3.8 and 80°C, respectively, and high stability at 4–80°C for 6 h. The enzymatic activity was not influenced by metal ions and chemical agents (K+, Na+, Zn2+, Fe3+, Mn2+, Mg2+, glucose, urea, lactate) commonly found in serum and urine, with Cu2+ being the exception. The enzyme appears to be a metalloprotein stimulated by Ca2+ and Fe2+. Its Km and Kcat for oxalate were found to be 0.45 mM and 85 s−1, respectively. This enzyme is the only known oxalate oxidase which did not show substrate inhibition up to a substrate concentration of 50 mM. Thermostability, kinetic properties, and the absence of substrate inhibition make this enzyme an ideal candidate for clinical applications.
Growth Inhibition and Apoptosis Due to Restoration of E 2 A Activity in T Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Cells

Two models have been proposed for the molecular mechanism by which the Tal1 oncogene causes T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). The activation model suggests that Tal1 as heterodimers with the E2A transcription factor activates the expression of oncogenes. The inhibition model postulates that Tal1 interferes with the tumor-suppressing function of E2A. In the Jurkat T cell line, originally derived from a patient with T-ALL, Tal1 is complexed with E2A proteins and the transcriptional activity of E2A is very low. When E2A activity was restored by expressing an E2A–Tal1 fusion protein, E-T/2, the Jurkat cells underwent growth arrest and subsequently apoptosis, thus supporting the inhibition model and suggesting that E2A loss may contribute to leukemic progression.
Hypotension during surgery for subdural hematoma and effusion in infants

A retrospective study of subdural hematoma was conducted in 36 patients ranging in age from 2 months to 9 years. Hypotension occurred in 41% of the children during the evacuation of the subdural hematoma. This study suggests that hypovolemia was caused, in part, by the blood loss into the subdural hematoma. In patients with hematoma larger than 8% of the intravascular volume, the frequency of the hypotension was high (88%). Infants, in particular, had larger hematomas, ranging in size from 8–27% of intravascular blood volume and, therefore, were at high risk to develop hypotension. These larger hematomas may be due to the infants' higher ratio of subdural space to the body weight. The study also suggests that the preoperative infusion of adequate fluid and blood is a significant factor in preventing hypotension during the hematoma evacuation.
Chlamydia trachomatis pneumonia in the severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mouse.

We have developed a model of pneumonia caused by the mouse pneumonitis agent (MoPn, murine Chlamydia trachomatis) in the C.B-17 severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mouse. In contrast to our prior models in the nude athymic (nu/nu) and heterozygous (nu/+) mouse, SCID mice lack B-cell function and gamma delta T-cell function. SCID mice were more susceptible to MoPn than nu/nu or nu/+ mice both by criteria of mortality and quantitative lung culture. SCID mice could be reconstituted with thymocytes to be more resistant to MoPn (in the absence of significant antibody production), but the protection was modest and less than that in T-cell reconstituted nu/nu mice in our previous studies. A nu/+ MoPn-specific T-cell clone with a Th1-like cytokine profile also provided modest but significant protection without significant antibody production. The SCID mouse is a useful model to study T-cell-mediated immunity to MoPn in a B cell and gamma delta T-cell-deficient environment.
The Casualty Gap: The Causes and Consequences of American Wartime Inequalities

PREFACE 1. The Casualty Gap 2. Inequality and U.S. Casualties from WWII to Iraq 3. Selection, Occupational Assignment and the Emergence of the Casualty Gap 4. Do Casualty Gaps Matter? 5. The Broader Consequences of Casualty Inequalities 6. Political Ramifications of the Vietnam Casualty Gap 7. Political Ramifications of the Iraq Casualty Gap 8. The Casualty Gap and Civic Engagement 9. The Future of the Casualty Gap REFERENCES LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Cryptic lineage divergence in marine environments: genetic differentiation at multiple spatial and temporal scales in the widespread intertidal goby Gobiosoma bosc

Abstract The adaptive radiation of the seven‐spined gobies (Gobiidae: Gobiosomatini) represents a classic example of how ecological specialization and larval retention can drive speciation through local adaptation. However, geographically widespread and phenotypically uniform species also do occur within Gobiosomatini. This lack of phenotypic variation across large geographic areas could be due to recent colonization, widespread gene flow, or stabilizing selection acting across environmental gradients. We use a phylogeographic approach to test these alternative hypotheses in the naked goby Gobiosoma bosc, a widespread and phenotypically invariable intertidal fish found along the Atlantic Coast of North America. Using DNA sequence from 218 individuals sampled at 15 localities, we document marked intraspecific genetic structure in mitochondrial and nuclear genes at three main geographic scales: (i) between Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Coast, (ii) between the west coast of the Florida peninsula and adjacent Gulf of Mexico across the Apalachicola Bay, and (iii) at local scales of a few hundred kilometers. Clades on either side of Florida diverged about 8 million years ago, whereas some populations along the East Cost show divergent phylogroups that have differentiated within the last 200,000 years. The absence of noticeable phenotypic or ecological differentiation among lineages suggests the role of stabilizing selection on ancestral phenotypes, together with isolation in allopatry due to reduced dispersal and restricted gene flow, as the most likely explanation for their divergence. Haplotype phylogenies and spatial patterns of genetic diversity reveal frequent population bottlenecks followed by rapid population growth, particularly along the Gulf of Mexico. The magnitude of the genetic divergence among intraspecific lineages suggests the existence of cryptic species within Gobiosoma and indicates that modes of speciation can vary among lineages within Gobiidae.
Dividend Policy and Stock Price Volatility: An Error Corrected Approach

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between dividend policy and stock price volatility (SV) in the Sri Lankan context. Based on the Hausman test results, the cross-section random effect model (CSREM) is performed in order to test the hypotheses. The Granger causality (GC) test is employed in order to test the short-term relation between dependent and explanatory variables. The CSREM test revealed that there is a significant negative impact from dividend payout, a significant positive impact from company size and no evidence of significant impact from dividend yield (DY) on SV. Furthermore, GC tests revealed that there is no short-term impact from dividend payout on SV and it showed a feedback exists between company size and stock price volatility. It is also reported that a unidirectional causality exists from DY to SV in any lag level. The management could use dividend policy as a mechanism to control stock price volatility. They could reduce the SV by increasing their dividend payout and it is possible to increase the volatility by enhancing the DY or firms size in the short run. This study is the first to accentuate that DY has a significant impact on SV in the short run and the first to discuss the same phenomenon in the Sri Lankan context, as per the best of the authors’ knowledge.
Automated segmentation of the optic disc from stereo color photographs using physiologically plausible features.

PURPOSE To evaluate a novel automated segmentation algorithm for cup-to-disc segmentation from stereo color photographs of patients with glaucoma for the measurement of glaucoma progression. METHODS Stereo color photographs of the optic disc were obtained by using a fixed stereo-base fundus camera in 58 eyes of 58 patients with suspected or open-angle glaucoma. Manual planimetry was performed by three glaucoma faculty members to delineate a reference standard rim and cup segmentation of all stereo pairs and by three glaucoma fellows as well. Pixel feature classification was evaluated on the stereo pairs and corresponding reference standard, by using feature computation based on simulation of photoreceptor color opponency and visual cortex simple and complex cells. An optimal subset of 12 features was used to segment all pixels in all stereo pairs, and the percentage of pixels assigned the correct class and linear cup-to-disc ratio (LCDR) estimates of the glaucoma fellows and the algorithm were compared to the reference standard. RESULTS The algorithm was able to assign cup, rim, and background correctly to 88% of all pixels. Correlations of the LCDR estimates of glaucoma fellows with those of the reference standard were 0.73 (95% CI, 0.58-0.83), 0.81 (95% CI, 0.70-0.89), and 0.86 (95% CI, 0.78-0.91), respectively, whereas the correlation of the algorithm with the reference standard was 0.93 (95% CI, 0.89-0.96; n = 58). CONCLUSIONS The pixel feature classification algorithm allows objective segmentation of the optic disc from conventional color stereo photographs automatically without human input. The performance of the disc segmentation and LCDR calculation of the algorithm was comparable to that of glaucoma fellows in training and is promising for objective evaluation of optic disc cupping.
A direct AC-DC converter integrated with SSHI circuit for piezoelectric energy harvesting

In this letter, a direct AC-DC converter for piezoelectric (PE) energy harvesting is proposed, which integrates a Synchronous Switch Harvesting on Inductor (SSHI) circuit, to achieve a resistive impedance matching. An SSHI circuit intends to deal with high impedance of the PE transducer. Then, the converter working in discontinuous conduction mode (DCM), with relative high switching frequency, delivers the harvested energy into the load. The circuit is self-powered and can start even if the storage elements are completely drained. The experimental results show that the proposed circuit has better power extraction capability with a higher output voltage, compared with conventional SSHI rectifier under the same excitation.
Genetic correlates of in vivo viral resistance to indinavir, a human immunodeficiency virus type 1 protease inhibitor

Indinavir (IDV) (also called CRIXIVAN, MK-639, or L-735,524) is a potent and selective inhibitor of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) protease. During early clinical trials, in which patients initiated therapy with suboptimal dosages of IDV, we monitored the emergence of viral resistance to the inhibitor by genotypic and phenotypic characterization of primary HIV-1 isolates. Development of resistance coincided with variable patterns of multiple substitutions among at least 11 protease amino acid residues. No single substitution was present in all resistant isolates, indicating that resistance evolves through multiple genetic pathways. Despite this complexity, all of 29 resistant isolates tested exhibited alteration of residues M-46 (to I or L) and/or V-82 (to A, F, or T), suggesting that screening of these residues may be useful in predicting the emergence of resistance. We also extended our previous finding that IDV-resistant viral variants exhibit various patterns of cross-resistance to a diverse panel of HIV-1 protease inhibitors. Finally, we noted an association between the number of protease amino acid substitutions and the observed level of IDV resistance. No single substitution or pair of substitutions tested gave rise to measurable viral resistance to IDV. The evolution of this resistance was found to be cumulative, indicating the need for ongoing viral replication in this process. These observations strongly suggest that therapy should be initiated with the most efficacious regimen available, both to suppress viral spread and to inhibit the replication that is required for the evolution of resistance.
Single-Frequency-Based Dry Rubber Content Determination Technique for In-Field Measurement Application

In this paper, it is shown that extensive characterization and modeling of dielectric permittivity of rubber latex enables dry rubber content (DRC) to be accurately determined using a measurement at a single microwave frequency. The model is demonstrated in a low-cost sensing system based on a six-port reflectometer that is suitable for application in the field. To develop an accurate model, a wide range of samples (with the DRC in the range 28%–61%) is first measured using the Agilent Technologies 85070E dielectric probe system for a range of frequencies and at temperatures from 15<formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">$^{\circ}{\rm C}$</tex></formula> to 39<formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">$^{\circ}{\rm C}$</tex></formula>. This data is then used to determine the parameters of a dielectric mixture model, which is based on the assumption that rubber latex is a diphase liquid consisting of the water and solid rubber. To take the effect of temperature and signal frequency on the molecular polarization behavior into account, the dielectric permittivity of the water is described using a Debye-type relaxation spectral function; and the frequency-dependant polarization parameter of neighboring inclusions is applied to the dielectric mixture model. After determining all the model parameters, it is then shown that the measurement of the sample's temperature and dielectric permittivity at a single frequency is sufficient to determine the DRC with a high degree of accuracy. Compared with the measurements made with the standard oven-drying method, using a single 2.5 GHz measurement the technique exhibits 0.36% DRC of mean absolute error with 0.28% DRC standard deviation, over the temperature range 15<formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">$^{\circ}{\rm C}$</tex> </formula>–39<formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">$^{\circ}{\rm C}$</tex></formula>. Finally, the technique is implemented with a six-port reflectometer. The measurement system employing the model is applied and tested with several fresh rubber latex samples. A wide range of measured results confirm the validity of the technique.
Diagnosing Cluster Competitiveness Using Firm-Level Data in the Profit–Growth Nexus Framework

Competitiveness is defined at the level of firms, clusters, regions, and nations. Although researchers have extensively explored the concept of competitiveness in each of these respective categories, an understanding of the relationship between levels of competitiveness is lacking. The simple aggregation of indicators to approximate broader categories of competitiveness is challenged as a robust solution. This paper proposes an alternative solution to aggregating firm-level competitiveness, based on the profit–growth nexus. Using data collected from SMEs in two ICT clusters, the size–profit–growth relationships were tested. Based on 83 Hungarian and 71 Australian responses, positive relationships were found in both samples, demonstrating high cluster-level competitiveness. It is argued that this outcome better represents cluster-level competitiveness based on firm-level data, than other – linear and additive – aggregation methods. However, a comparative examination of the data across the clusters showed significant differences between the results of the two samples, ascertaining limitations for the generalisability of the results.
The Measurement and Evolution of Embedded Carbon Footprint in Chinese Urban Inhabitants

Because of the "Jevons Paradox" existing between efficiency improvement and energy consumption,the research on the energy use and emission needed to be further investigated from the perspective of the lifestyle and social-behavioral(LSB). In this paper,a carbon emission input-output model was built to calculate the Embedded Carbon Footprints(ECF) in Chinese urban inhabitants,the structure and the evolution laws of ECF are also discussed.The study shows that:(1) the total ECF would be increased when the individual consummation reaches the inflection point of 10,000 yuan,which is mostly induced by the increment of enjoyment emission and decrement of live emission;and(2) China is taking a road to high-carbon consumption and the intensity of structural emission will be increased.According to the above analysis,we suggested that government should increase the strength of demand management and establish the system of quota system of carbon emission.