Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Female mate preferences for male body size and shape promote sexual isolation in threespine sticklebacks

Female mate preferences for ecologically relevant traits may enhance natural selection, leading to rapid divergence. They may also forge a link between mate choice within species and sexual isolation between species. Here, we examine female mate preference for two ecologically important traits: body size and body shape. We measured female preferences within and between species of benthic, limnetic, and anadromous threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus species complex). We found that mate preferences differed between species and between contexts (i.e., within vs. between species). Within species, anadromous females preferred males that were deep bodied for their size, benthic females preferred larger males (as measured by centroid size), and limnetic females preferred males that were more limnetic shaped. In heterospecific mating trials between benthics and limnetics, limnetic females continued to prefer males that were more limnetic like in shape when presented with benthic males. Benthic females showed no preferences for size when presented with limnetic males. These results show that females use ecologically relevant traits to select mates in all three species and that female preference has diverged between species. These results suggest that sexual selection may act in concert with natural selection on stickleback size and shape. Further, our results suggest that female preferences may track adaptation to local environments and contribute to sexual isolation between benthic and limnetic sticklebacks.
A survey of polarization in the JVAS/CLASS flat-spectrum radio source surveys – I. The data and catalogue production

We have used the very large JVAS/CLASS 8.4-GHz surveys of flat-spectrum radio sources to obtain a large, uniformly observed and calibrated, sample of radio source polarizations. These are useful for many investigations of the properties of radio sources and the interstellar medium. We discuss comparisons with polarization measurements from this survey and from other large-scale surveys of polarization in flat-spectrum sources.
Tetraspanin-3 is an organizer of the multi-subunit Nogo-A signaling complex

ABSTRACT To ensure precision and specificity of ligand-receptor-induced signaling, co-receptors and modulatory factors play important roles. The membrane-bound ligand Nogo-A (an isoform encoded by RTN4) induces inhibition of neurite outgrowth, cell spreading, adhesion and migration through multi-subunit receptor complexes. Here, we identified the four-transmembrane-spanning protein tetraspanin-3 (TSPAN3) as a new modulatory co-receptor for the Nogo-A inhibitory domain Nogo-A-Δ20. Single-molecule tracking showed that TSPAN3 molecules in the cell membrane reacted to binding of Nogo-A with elevated mobility, which was followed by association with the signal-transducing Nogo-A receptor sphingosine-1-phosphate receptor 2 (S1PR2). Subsequently, TSPAN3 was co-internalized as part of the Nogo-A-ligand–receptor complex into early endosomes, where it subsequently separated from Nogo-A and S1PR2 to be recycled to the cell surface. The functional importance of the Nogo-A–TSPAN3 interaction is shown by the fact that knockdown of TSPAN3 strongly reduced the Nogo-A-induced S1PR2 clustering, RhoA activation, cell spreading and neurite outgrowth inhibition. In addition to the modulatory functions of TSPAN3 on Nogo-A–S1PR2 signaling, these results illustrate the very dynamic spatiotemporal reorganizations of membrane proteins during ligand-induced receptor complex organization. Highlighted Article: Tetraspanin-3 is an organizer of the multi-subunit Nogo-A signaling complex. It acts in a protein complex with Nogo-A-Δ20 and S1PR2, and is required during Nogo-A-Δ20-mediated cell spreading and inhibition of neurite outgrowth.
Weak States and Steady States: The Dynamics of Fiscal Capacity

Investments in fiscal capacity? economic institutions for tax compliance? are an important feature of economic development. This paper develops a dynamic model to study the evolution of fiscal capacity over time. We contrast a social planner's investment path with politically feasible paths. Three types of states emerge in the long run: a common-interest state where public resources are devoted to public goods, a redistributive state where additional fiscal capacity is used for transfers, and a weak state with no transfers and a low level of public goods provision. We also present some preliminary evidence consistent with the theory.
Murine Recombinant Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2: Effect on Angiotensin II–Dependent Hypertension and Distinctive Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 Inhibitor Characteristics on Rodent and Human Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2

A newly produced murine recombinant angiotensin (Ang)-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) was characterized in vivo and in vitro. The effects of available ACE2 inhibitors (MLN-4760 and 2 conformational variants of DX600, linear and cyclic) were also examined. When murine ACE2 was given to mice for 4 weeks, a marked increase in serum ACE2 activity was sustainable. In acute studies, mouse ACE2 (1 mg/kg) obliterated hypertension induced by Ang II infusion by rapidly decreasing plasma Ang II. These effects were blocked by MLN-4760 but not by either form of DX600. In vitro, conversion from Ang II to Ang-(1-7) by mouse ACE2 was blocked by MLN-4760 (10−6 M) but not by either form of DX600 (10−5 M). Quantitative analysis of multiple Ang peptides in plasma ex vivo revealed formation of Ang-(1-9) from Ang I by human but not by mouse ACE2. Both human and mouse ACE2 led to the dissipation of Ang II with formation of Ang (1-7). By contrast, mouse ACE2-driven Ang-(1-7) formation from Ang II was blocked by MLN-4760 but not by either linear or cyclic DX600. In conclusion, sustained elevations in serum ACE2 activity can be accomplished with murine ACE2 administration, thereby providing a strategy for ACE2 amplification in chronic studies using rodent models of hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Human but not mouse ACE2 degrades Ang I to form Ang-(1-9). There are also species differences regarding rodent and human ACE2 inhibition by known inhibitors such that MLN-4760 inhibits both human and mouse ACE2, whereas DX600 only blocks human ACE2 activity.
On Statistical Measures for Selecting Pertinent Formal Concepts to Discover Production Rules from Data

The discovery of production rules (association rules and/or classification rules) is one of the most important tasks of data mining. The discovered knowledge is intelligible and comprehensible by experts in any field. In previous works, the authors used formal concept analysis to discover classification rules and association rules embedded in data sets. One of the difficulties the authors found is to measure the pertinence of the discovered rules. In supervised learning of classification rules, the authors used the known entropy measure. In un-supervised learning of association rules, they used the known support measure. However, some recent works have proven the insufficiency of these measures and have introduced other ones. In this paper, the authors present a bibliographic summary of many existing pertinence measures. Then, the authors present an experimental study of the behavior of these measures in order to help the users of our learning system, choosing the appropriate measure
Paths to Successful Development: Attachment relationships and appraisal of partnership: from early experience of sensitive support to later relationship representation

Introduction Part of Bowlby's developmental writing focused on the accumulation of empirical evidence towards the most far-reaching hypothesis provided by psychoanalysis, namely, that the mother-child relationship has profound influences on the psychological development of the child well into adulthood (Bowlby, 1969/82, 1973, 1979). Bowlby saw a strong relationship between an individual's experience with his parents and his later capacity to make affectional bonds (Bowlby, 1987). The major goal of this chapter is not only to provide support for the viewpoint that attachments are a life-long concern, but also to argue for the influence of the child's early attachment experiences and representations on his or her later partnership representations. In support of this argument, we will demonstrate three pathways from infancy to young adulthood that point in the direction of the quality of later partnership representation. They are as follows: a) maternal sensitivity turned out to be a strong predictor even from the earliest assessments on; b) attachment assessments in childhood and adolescence but not in infancy predicted later partnership representation; and c) assessments of discourse quality about attachment issues made a unique contribution to the prediction of later partnership representation. The three pathways were closely interrelated suggesting that the roots of adult partnership representation can be found in interactive assessments, in discourse, or in standard assessments of attachment.
Source behavior discovery for fusion of subjective opinions

Information is at the center of decision making in many systems and use-cases. In cooperative or hostile environments, agents communicate their subjective opinions about various phenomenon. However, sources of these opinions are not always competent and honest but often erroneous or even malicious. Furthermore, malicious sources may adopt certain behaviors to mislead the decision maker in a specific way. Fortunately, the reports of such misleading sources are correlated to ground truth. Using statistical methods, one can learn how likely a source distorts the ground truth and the associated distortion models so that reports from these sources can still be fused to enhance estimation of the ground truth. In this work, we propose to learn a number of statistically meaningful opinion transformations that represent various behaviors of information sources. Then, we exploit these transformations while fusing opinions from unreliable sources. Using real data from the Web and through extensive comparison with recent trust-based approaches over simulations, we show that our approach can be used to determine set of transformations that may lead to more accurate estimation of the truth.
Metabolite Profiling Reveals Developmental Inequalities in Pinot Noir Berry Tissues Late in Ripening

Uneven ripening in Vitis vinifera is increasingly recognized as a phenomenon of interest, with substantial implications for fruit and wine composition and quality. This study sought to determine whether variation late in ripening (∼Modified Eichhorn-Lorenz stage 39) was associated with developmental differences that were observable as fruits within a cluster initiated ripening (véraison). Four developmentally distinct ripening classes of berries were tagged at cluster véraison, sampled at three times late in ripening, and subjected to untargeted HPLC-MS to measure variation in amino acids, sugars, organic acids, and phenolic metabolites in skin, pulp, and seed tissues separately. Variability was described using predominantly two strategies. In the first, multivariate analysis (Orthogonal Projections to Latent Structures-Discriminant Analysis, OPLS-DA) was used to determine whether fruits were still distinguishable per their developmental position at véraison and to identify which metabolites accounted for these distinctions. The same technique was used to assess changes in each tissue over time. In a second strategy and for each annotated metabolite, the variance across the ripening classes at each time point was measured to show whether intra-cluster variance (ICV) was growing, shrinking, or constant over the period observed. Indeed, berries could be segregated by OPLS-DA late in ripening based on their developmental position at véraison, though the four ripening classes were aggregated into two larger ripening groups. Further, not all tissues were dynamic over the period examined. Although pulp tissues could be segregated by time sampled, this was not true for seed and only moderately so for skin. Ripening group differences in seed and skin, rather than the time fruit was sampled, were better able to define berries. Metabolites also experienced significant reductions in ICV between single pairs of time points, but never across the entire experiment. Metabolites often exhibited a combination of ICV expansion, contraction and persistence. Finally, we observed significant differences in the abundance of some metabolites between ripening classes that suggest the berries that initiated ripening first remained developmentally ahead of the lagging fruit even late in the ripening phase. This presents a challenge to producers who would seek to harvest at uniformity or at a predefined level of variation.
Issues in combining marking and direct manipulation techniques

The direct manipulation paradigm has been effective in helping designers create easy to use mouse and keyboard based interfaces. The development of flat display surfaces and transparent tablets are now making possible interfaces where a user can write directly on the screen using a special stylus. The intention of these types of interfaces is to exploit user’s existing handwriting, mark-up and drawing skills while also providing the benefits of direct manipulation. This paper reports on a test bed program which we are using for exploring hand-marking types of interactions and their integration with direct manipulation interactions.
[The mechanisms and effects of panax notoginside and methylprednisolone in a rat model of pulmonary fibrosis].

OBJECTIVE To study the effects of panax notoginside (PNS) and methylprednisolone (solu-medrol) on the development of pulmonary fibrosis and the possible underlining mechanisms. METHODS Rats were divided into 3 groups: pulmonary fibrosis group, PNS treated group and solu-medrol treated group. On days 1, 3, 7, 14, and 28 after bleomycin treatment, 5 rats in each group were killed and the lungs and plasma were harvested for histopathological studies, immunohistochemical determination of collagen I and III and ELISA detection of MIP-1alpha and MCP-1. RESULTS The degrees of fibrosis, the levels of collagen I and III, and the levels of MIP-1alpha and MCP-1 decreased significantly in the PNS and solu-medrol treated groups as compared with the fibrosis group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION Both PNS and solu-medrol are effective in modulating the process of pulmonary fibrosis induced by bleomycin in rats.
Unravelling the Subsidiary Initiative Process: A Multilevel Approach

Strategy-making and entrepreneurial behaviour at the subsidiary level, in particular the phenomenon of subsidiary initiative, has received increasing research attention in recent years. In the fields of international business, strategy and entrepreneurship, several studies addressing aspects of this phenomenon have been conducted. They focused on different stages of the subsidiary initiative process, different theories and also different methodological levels. This puts subsidiary initiatives as a topic at the crossroads of several disciplines, so that theory-building remains fragmented, and there is a lack of perspective capturing the complexity of the entire subsidiary initiative process. Based on a comprehensive literature review, this paper discusses theoretical concepts and streams of thinking that have contributed to our understanding of the subsidiary initiative process, and develops an organizing framework based on stages and levels of the subsidiary initiative process. In order to integrate theories across levels, the authors identify ‘aggregation’ theories that guide the emergence of initiatives from the individual up to the network level, and also acknowledge theories that link the micro–macro divide and may help in the development of a more holistic view of subsidiary initiatives.
Molecular Epidemiology of Bacterial Wilt in the Madagascar Highlands Caused by Andean (Phylotype IIB-1) and African (Phylotype III) Brown Rot Strains of the Ralstonia solanacearum Species Complex

The Ralstonia solanacearum species complex (RSSC) is a highly diverse cluster of bacterial strains found worldwide, many of which are destructive and cause bacterial wilt (BW) in a wide range of host plants. In 2009, potato production in Madagascar was dramatically affected by several BW epidemics. Controlling this disease is critical for Malagasy potato producers. The first important step toward control is the characterization of strains and their putative origins. The genetic diversity and population structure of the RSSC were investigated in the major potato production areas of the Highlands. A large collection of strains (n = 1224) was assigned to RSSC phylotypes based on multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Phylotypes I and III have been present in Madagascar for a long time but rarely associated with major potato BW outbreaks. The marked increase of BW prevalence was found associated with phylotype IIB sequevar 1 (IIB-1) strains (n = 879). This is the first report of phylotype IIB-1 strains in Madagascar. In addition to reference strains, epidemic IIB-1 strains (n = 255) were genotyped using the existing MultiLocus Variable-Number Tandem Repeat Analysis (MLVA) scheme RS2-MLVA9, producing 31 haplotypes separated into two related clonal complexes (CCs). One major CC included most of the worldwide haplotypes distributed across wide areas. A regional-scale investigation suggested that phylotype IIB-1 strains were introduced and massively spread via latently infected potato seed tubers. Additionally, the genetic structure of phylotype IIB-1 likely resulted from a bottleneck/founder effect. The population structure of phylotype III, described here for the first time in Madagascar, exhibited a different pattern. Phylotype III strains (n = 217) were genotyped using the highly discriminatory MLVA scheme RS3-MLVA16. High genetic diversity was uncovered, with 117 haplotypes grouped into 11 CCs. Malagasy phylotype III strains were highly differentiated from continental African strains, suggesting no recent migration from the continent. Overall, population structure of phylotype III involves individual small CCs that correlate to restricted geographic areas in Madagascar. The evidence suggests, if at all, that African phylotype III strains are not efficiently transmitted through latently infected potato seed tubers.
Tree‐Based Linkage and Association Analyses of Asthma

Tree‐based linkage analyses and association studies are introduced and applied for two data sets on asthma from Genetic Analysis Workshop 12. Consistent and strong evidence of linkage and association to markers on chromosomes 1 and 11 is revealed. Linkage to chromosome 16 in one data set and association with D6S276 in the other data set are also detected. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The visualisation and quantification of human gastrointestinal fat distribution with MRI: a randomised study in healthy subjects

Abstract We aimed to study the fate of fat during digestion. For this purpose, we validated and investigated the non-invasive quantification of gastric and duodenal fat emptying and emulsion processing (creaming and phase separation) using the MRI method iterative decomposition with echo asymmetry and least squares estimation (IDEAL). In total, twelve healthy subjects were studied on two separate visits in a single-blind, randomised, cross-over design study. IDEAL was utilised to repeatedly acquire quantitative fat fraction maps of the gastrointestinal tract after infusion of one of two fat emulsions: E1 (acid stable, droplet size 0·33 mm) and E4 (acid unstable, 0·38 mm). In vitro and in vivo validation was carried out using diluted emulsion and gastric content samples, respectively, and resulted in Lin’s concordance correlation coefficients of 1·00 (95 % CI 0·98, 1·00) and 0·91 (95 % CI 0·87, 0·94), respectively. Fat fraction maps and intragastric emulsion profiles enabled the identification of features of intraluminal phase separation and creaming that were not visible in conventional MRI. Gastric fat emptying was faster for E4 compared with E1 with a difference of 2·5 (95 % CI 1·9, 3·1) ml/h. Duodenal content volumes were larger for E1 than for E4 with a difference of 4·9 (95 % CI 3·9, 8·5) ml. This study demonstrated that with IDEAL it was possible (1) to visualise the intragastric and duodenal fat distribution and (2) to quantify the differences in emptying, phase separation and creaming of an acid-stable and an acid-unstable emulsion. This method has potential to bridge the gap between current in vitro digestive models and in vivo behaviour and to be applied in the development of effective functional foods.
Functional Classes Guide Use of Design Patterns in Implementing Mediators

In this paper, we study how functional classes guide use of design patterns when implementing mediators. Functional classes is a design style that merges both object-oriented and functional programming paradigms. A functional class is a class without variables having pure functions as methods. Therefore, method calls in functional classes are function calls also in the formal sense. As a result, a functional class is naturally a mediator. In this paper, as the main contribution, we show that functional classes lead to proper use of certain specific design patterns, like Singleton, Adapter, Abstract Factory, and Strategy. We exemplify this with a data mediator implementation called JavaTableFC
Solving Simultaneous Modular Equations of Low Degree

We consider the problem of solving systems of equations $P_i (x) \equiv 0(\bmod n_i )i = 1 \cdots k$ where $P_i $ are polynomials of degree d and the $n_i $ are distinct relatively prime numbers and $x {{d(d + 1)} / 2}$ we can recover x in polynomial time provided $\min (n_i ) > 2^{d^2 } $. As a consequence the RSA cryptosystem used with a small exponent is not a good choice to use as a public-key cryptosystem in a large network. We also show that a protocol by Broder and Dolev [Proceedings on the 25th Annual IEEE Symposium on the Foundations of Computer Science, 1984] is insecure if RSA with a small exponent is used.
Algebraic Attacks Galore!

This is the first in a two-part survey of current techniques in algebraic cryptanalysis. After introducing the basic setup of algebraic attacks and discussing several attack scenarios for symmetric cryptosystems, public key cryptosystems, and stream ciphers, we discuss a number of individual methods. The XL, XSL, and MutantXL attacks are based on linearization techniques for multivariate polynomial systems. Then we look at Gröbner basis and border bases methods. In the last section we introduce attacks based on integer programming techniques and try them in some concrete cases.
Cross-layer designs of multichannel reservation MAC under Rayleigh fading

We consider a reservation-based medium access control (MAC) scheme where users reserve data channels through a slotted-ALOHA procedure. The base station grants access to users in a Rayleigh fading environment using measurements at the physical layer and system information at the MAC layer. The paper has two contributions pertaining to simple reservation based medium access. First, we provide a Markov chain formulation to analyze the performance (throughput/channel utilization) of the multichannel slotted system. Second, a Neyman-Pearson like MAC design optimized for performance is presented. This design can serve as a benchmark in evaluating the performance of other designs based on conventional physical layer detectors such as maximum a posteriori probability, maximum likelihood, and uniformly most powerful detectors. Results show that utilizing system information in addition to the physical layer measurements indeed leads to a gain in performance. We discuss the issue of further improving the performance in fading by means of multiple measurements and also comment on the delay/channel-utilization trade-off for the optimal MAC design.