Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A reappraisal of the monophyly of the genus Pseudomonocelis Meixner, 1943 (Platyhelminthes: Proseriata), with the description of a new species from the Mediterranean

Pseudomonocelis paupercula nov. sp. is described from brackish-water habitats of the Mediterranean. It is distinguished from other members of the genus by the copulatory organ provided with a stylet, combined with lack of vagina and presence of a muscular organ close to the female pore. Its phylogenetic relationships have been investigated sequencing complete 18S rRNA gene and partial 28S rRNA gene, spanning variable domains D1-D6. Both BI and ML suggest a sistertaxon relationships of P. paupercula nov. sp. with the east African P. cf cavernicola. However, statistical support is low. Conversely, MP indicates P. paupercula nov. sp. as sister-taxon to all the remaining Pseudomonocelis and Minona ilenae. Overall, results of the combined analysis do not support the monophyly of the genus Pseudomonocelis. The need for wider molecular and taxonomic sampling is stressed.
The Evolution and Genetics of Migration in Insects

ABSTRACT Because areas suitable for growth and reproduction are often ephemeral, a primary selective force in the evolution of migratory behavior in insects is the need to colonize new habitats. However, both migration itself and flight capability reduce present reproductive success. Thus the long-term fitness benefit of migration, the colonization of new habitats, is balanced by a short-term reduction in fitness, the result being that variation for migratory ability is preserved in a population. Migration is but one component of a wide suite of functionally connected traits that together form a migratory syndrome. Genetic variation is found in all components of the migratory syndrome, and selection for migration results in a change in the frequency of expression of these components, which can be analyzed and predicted using the mathematics of quantitative genetics. We illustrate this evolutionary interplay with the example of the evolution of wing dimorphism in the sand cricket.
Teaching nullspace constraints in physical human-robot interaction using Reservoir Computing

A major goal of current robotics research is to enable robots to become co-workers that collaborate with humans efficiently and adapt to changing environments or workflows. We present an approach utilizing the physical interaction capabilities of compliant robots with data-driven and model-free learning in a coherent system in order to make fast reconfiguration of redundant robots feasible. Users with no particular robotics knowledge can perform this task in physical interaction with the compliant robot, for example to reconfigure a work cell due to changes in the environment. For fast and efficient learning of the respective null-space constraints, a reservoir neural network is employed. It is embedded in the motion controller of the system, hence allowing for execution of arbitrary motions in task space. We describe the training, exploration and the control architecture of the systems as well as present an evaluation on the KUKA Light-Weight Robot. Our results show that the learned model solves the redundancy resolution problem under the given constraints with sufficient accuracy and generalizes to generate valid joint-space trajectories even in untrained areas of the workspace.
Iontophoretic transdermal system using fentanyl compared with patient-controlled intravenous analgesia using morphine for postoperative pain management.

BACKGROUND The fentanyl iontophoretic transdermal system (fentanyl ITS) enables needle-free, patient-controlled analgesia for postoperative pain management. This study compared the efficacy, safety, and ease of care of fentanyl ITS with patient-controlled, i.v. analgesia (PCIA) with morphine for postoperative pain management. METHODS A prospective, randomized, multicentre trial enrolled patients in Europe after abdominal or orthopaedic surgery. Patients received fentanyl ITS (n = 325; 40.0 microg fentanyl over 10 min) or morphine PCIA [n = 335; bolus doses (standard at each hospital)] for < or =72 h. Supplemental i.v. morphine was available during the first 3 h. The primary efficacy measure was the patient global assessment (PGA) of the pain control method during the first 24 h. RESULTS PGA ratings of 'good' or 'excellent' were reported by 86.2 and 87.5% of patients using fentanyl ITS or morphine PCIA, respectively (95% CI, -6.5 to 3.9%). Mean (sd) last pain intensity scores (numerical rating scale, 0-10) were 1.8 (1.77) and 1.9 (1.86) in the fentanyl ITS and morphine PCIA groups, respectively (95% CI, -0.38 to 0.18). More patients reported a system-related problem for fentanyl ITS than morphine PCIA (51.1 vs 17.9%, respectively). However, fewer of these problems interrupted pain control (4.4 vs 41.3%, respectively). Patients, nurses, and physiotherapists reported more favourable overall ease-of-care ratings for fentanyl ITS than morphine PCIA. Study termination rates and opioid-related side-effects were similar between groups. CONCLUSION Fentanyl ITS and morphine PCIA were comparably effective and safe.
Subjective and objective neuropsychological abnormalities in a psychosis prodrome clinic

Background Predicting transitions to psychosis is difficult. Neuropsychology might facilitate predictions. Aims To report preliminary data on self-perceived and objectively measurable neurocognition in prodromal patients of the first German early recognition centre. Method Subjective neuropsychological disturbances were assessed in 51 patients with potentially prodromal symptoms of schizophrenia. Initial neurocognitive functioning was compared with matched normals and patients with schizophrenia. Results Self-perceived deficits mostly concerned perception, cognition and stress reactivity. Five transitions happened during the 15-month follow-up. Recently emerging or intensifying deficits were to some extent predictive of transition. Persons at risk performed worse than controls on objectively measured verbal capacity, attention and memory functions. Conclusions Neuropsychological deficits, either self-perceived or objectively measured, characterise persons at risk for schizophrenia and may contribute to predicting transitions.
Diversifying Group Recommendation

Recommender-systems have been a significant research direction in both literature and practice. The core of recommender systems are the recommendation mechanisms, which suggest to a user a selected set of items supposed to match user true intent, based on existing user preferences. In some scenarios, the items to be recommended are not intended for personal use but a group of users. Group recommendation is rather more since group members have wide-ranging levels of interests and often involve conflicts. However, group recommendation endures the over-specification problem, in which the presumingly relevant items do not necessarily match true user intent. In this paper, we address the problem of diversity in group recommendation by improving the chance of returning at least one piece of information that embraces group satisfaction. We proposed a bounded algorithm that finds a subset of items with maximal group utility and maximal variety of information. Experiments on real-world rating data sets show the efficiency and effectiveness of our approach.
Using a Finite Element Pediatric Hip Model in Clinical Evaluation - A Feasibility Study

The paper describe a method to construct a finite element model of the hip joint of a child based on clinical recorded CT data. A model which can be used for diagnostic aid and pre-operative surgical evaluation. First part of this development is a feasibility study of this method. A scan of the asymptomatic left hip of a 10-year-old girl with a dysplastic right hip was used. Cartilage was not visible why it was modeled as an interaction with constant thickness between two surfaces. For every point on the acetabular and femoral bone surfaces, the shortest distance to the other surface was used to calculate the resulting stress in the normal direction. At a load of 233% BW the model predicted peak pressures in the hip joint of 9.7-13.8 MPa and an area in contact of 351-405 mm2 . Experimental validation using the hip joint of a child was not ethical viable. Instead, our results were compared to previous published experimental studies and computational models investigating the adult hip joint. Good correlation between the current model and previous models were found. The current case specific modeling technique may be a useful complement to the previously developed hip models.
Geo-Distinctive Visual Element Matching for Location Estimation of Images

We propose an image representation and matching approach that substantially improves visual-based location estimation for images. The main novelty of the approach, called distinctive visual element matching (DVEM), is its use of representations that are specific to the query image whose location is being predicted. These representations are based on visual element clouds, which robustly capture the connection between the query and visual evidence from candidate locations. We then maximize the influence of visual elements that are geo-distinctive because they do not occur in images taken at many other locations. We carry out experiments and analysis for both geo-constrained and geo-unconstrained location estimation cases using two large-scale, publicly available datasets: the San Francisco Landmark dataset with 1.06 million street-view images and the MediaEval’15 Placing Task dataset with 5.6 million geo-tagged images from Flickr. We present examples that illustrate the highly transparent mechanics of the approach, which are based on commonsense observations about the visual patterns in image collections. Our results show that the proposed method delivers a considerable performance improvement compared to the state-of-the-art.
Reducing preterm birth in Iowa with Centering Pregnancy

Centering Pregnancy (CP) is a model of group care that integrates the three major components of care: Health assessment, education, and support, into a unified program within a group setting. Centering model’s evidence showing statistically significant improvements in 1) birth weights of infants born prematurely (gain of 400 gm), 2) a lengthening in the gestation of the babies born prematurely (34 weeks group vs. 32 weeks individual), 3) increased rates of breastfeeding, 4) higher satisfaction with care, and 5) feelings of increased preparation and knowledge. This article describes current efforts at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) to implement the CP program. The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Carver College of Medicine, The University of Iowa, Iowa City,
Title : Characterization of an influenza virus pseudotyped with Ebolavirus glycoprotein 1

Title: Characterization of an influenza virus pseudotyped with Ebolavirus glycoprotein 1 Julie Xiao, Pramila Rijal, Lisa Schimanski, Arun Kumar Tharkeshwar, Edward 2 Wright, Wim Annaert, Alain Townsend 3 Human Immunology Unit, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford, United 4 Kingdom 5 VIB-Center for Brain and Disease Research, Laboratory for Membrane Trafficking, 6 Leuven, Belgium & KU Leuven, Department of Neurosciences, Leuven, Belgium 7 Viral Pseudotype Unit, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Westminster, 8 London, United Kingdom 9 Address correspondence to Alain R. M. Townsend, alain.townsend@imm.ox. ac.uk. 10 *Present address: Arun Kumar Tharkeshwar, Yale School of Medicine, Department of 11 Cell Biology, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 12 Word count for the abstract: 231; for “importance”: 143 13 Word count for the text: 5811 14 JVI Accepted Manuscript Posted Online 6 December 2017 J. Virol. doi:10.1128/JVI.00941-17 © Crown copyright 2017. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
Market orientation of the Hungarian SMEs working in the meat processing and dairy industries

Abstract We are looking for the answer as to what tendencies were indicative of the future development of required marketing activity of the SMEs in the article dealing with the marketing activity of the SMEs working in the food industry. The article is based on a nationwide survey among 200 SMEs working in the food processing industry. In this article, we focus on the SMEs working in the dairy and meat processing industries. The results of the nationwide research and some domestic references refer to that there is a latent demand of effective marketing activity among small and medium-sized enterprises. It manifests itself in specifying marketing-related fields to be improved in the future. The marketing itself is believed not to be an important field at the same time. This apparent opposition is the small enterprise marketing paradox in the background of which is the lack of knowledge about the marketing instruments. It can be stated that these small businesses collect mainly general market information and have no information about particular products. Therefore, the presence of marketing planning is really rare and where there is some kind of planning it is not connected to available funds and follow-up control. The marketing strategy can be characterized by products processed mainly at low or medium level. Therefore, market position is deffned by “lower price-good quality”. They mainly use the traditional distribution channels and their communication is accidental and has a low level. The marketing-oriented way of thinking still exists among the factors affecting entrepreneurial behaviour, which cannot be found at the level of clusters, according to our results. We could identify 8.3% of the enterprises as having satisfactory marketing activity.
University of Huddersfield Repository Designing a Postcode System for Arbil City Iraq Original Citation

Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational or not­for­profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided: • The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy; • A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and • The content is not changed in any way.  Abstract—Today, as a result of developing and expanding cities, postal systems need to be devised to include a more robust sense of adaption and expansion for the growing city. An issue surrounding most current postcode systems such as the American Zip code and the UK postcode is the lack of direction and distance from a given point such as a city or urban centre. The aim of this study is to design a postcode system based on a sense of direction and distance from the central of an area. This paper presents a new method of postcode design that provides a sense direction by using a diagonal division with area classification numbers according to the main directions (North, South, East and West). As such, a postal region is divided into several zones by using the outward section of the proposed postcode to form a sense of distance from a central point. This proposed arrangement will be beneficial for developing countries that have the desire to start designing their own postcode system and will facilitate the improvement of postal delivery for developed countries.
Roles of PINK1, mTORC2, and mitochondria in preserving brain tumor-forming stem cells in a noncanonical Notch signaling pathway

Notch signaling maintains Drosophila and mammalian neural stem cells (NSCs). Lee et al. find that canonical and noncanonical Notch signaling cooperate in NSC regulation. In the noncanonical pathway, Notch interacts with PINK1 to influence mitochondrial function, activating mTORC2/AKT signaling and enhancing neuroblast growth. Inhibiting noncanonical Notch signaling preferentially impaired the maintenance of Drosophila and human cancer stem cell (CSC)-like cells. This study identifies a noncanonical Notch signaling pathway preferentially required by brain CSC-like cells.
Weakly Supervised Representation Learning for Unsynchronized Audio-Visual Events

Audio-visual representation learning is an important task from the perspective of designing machines with the ability to understand complex events. To this end, we propose a novel multimodal framework that instantiates multiple instance learning. We show that the learnt representations are useful for classifying events and localizing their characteristic audio-visual elements. The system is trained using only video-level event labels without any timing information. An important feature of our method is its capacity to learn from unsynchronized audio-visual events. We achieve state-of-the-art results on a large-scale dataset of weakly-labeled audio event videos. Visualizations of localized visual regions and audio segments substantiate our system's efficacy, especially when dealing with noisy situations where modality-specific cues appear asynchronously.
Diagnostic yield of stereotactic needle-biopsies of sub-cubic centimeter intracranial lesions

Background: Stereotactic brain biopsies are widely used for establishing the diagnosis of intracranial lesions. Here we examine whether stereotactic biopsy of smaller brain lesions, defined for this study as being less than 1 cubic centimeter (1 cc) in volume, are associated with lowered diagnostic yield. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of 267 consecutive patients who underwent stereotactic brain biopsy between 2007 and 2011. Lesion volumes were calculated and were stratified by <1 or >1 cc. Results: A total of 13 of 246 (5.2%) biopsies for lesions >1 cc resulted in nondiagnostic tissue or an incorrect diagnosis. In contrast, 5 of 21 (23.8%) biopsies for <1 cc lesions yielded nondiagnostic or incorrect diagnosis. Posthoc review of tissue from the <1 cc lesions suggests the neuropathologist's expertise in the handling and analysis of limited specimen as a critical parameter of successful diagnosis. The operative morbidities were low for both the <1 and >1 cc biopsies (0% and 1%, respectively). Conclusion: This study demonstrates that stereotactic cerebral biopsy of lesions less than a cubic centimeter in volume results in a lower diagnostic yield versus larger lesions (76.2% versus 94.8%). While auxiliary measures may be taken to improve diagnostic yield, these patients may be best managed in a specialized center with experienced stereotactic neurosurgeons and neuropathologists.
Topiramate: An in Vitro and in Vivo Comparison between the Pharmacokinetic Properties of a Generic (Sincronil) and the Reference (Topamax) Formulation

The use of generic formulation of therapeutic agents may allow a significant reduction of costs for patients and the National Health Services. This is particularly true for drugs used in prolonged therapies such as topiramate which is effective in the treatment of epilepsy, migraine, alcohol abuse and psychiatric conditions. The purposes of this study were: 1) evaluate Topiramate (50 mg) release in vitro from a generic (Sincronil) and the reference formulation (Topamax); 2) compare the above mentioned generic and reference formulations in bioavailability studies in healthy volunteers. Dissolution tests in vitro showed that more than 95% of the active principle was released within 15 minutes both from the reference and the generic formulation. No difference in release kinetics was found between the two topiramate preparations. In vivo pharmacokinetic data were obtained by administering 1 tablet containing 50 mg of topiramate of each of the two formulations to 28 healthy volunteers under fasting conditions, using a randomized, single-dose, open-label, 2-way crossover design. The treatment phases were separated by a washout period of 21 days. The maximum concentration reached in plasma (Cmax) for the reference and the generic formulation, were 946 ± 308 and 849 ± 247 (ng/mL) and the area under the curve (AUC0-t) were 35,900 ± 7800 and 34,300 ± 8100 (ng·h/mL) respectively. The data indicate that the rate and extent of absorption of the reference or generic 50 mg topiramate formulation are not significantly different and suggest that the therapeutic effects of the two preparations do not significantly differ.
Tyro3 Modulates Mertk-Associated Retinal Degeneration

Inherited photoreceptor degenerations (IPDs) are the most genetically heterogeneous of Mendelian diseases. Many IPDs exhibit substantial phenotypic variability, but the basis is usually unknown. Mutations in MERTK cause recessive IPD phenotypes associated with the RP38 locus. We have identified a murine genetic modifier of Mertk-associated photoreceptor degeneration, the C57BL/6 (B6) allele of which acts as a suppressor. Photoreceptors degenerate rapidly in Mertk-deficient animals homozygous for the 129P2/Ola (129) modifier allele, whereas animals heterozygous for B6 and 129 modifier alleles exhibit an unusual intermixing of degenerating and preserved retinal regions, with females more severely affected than males. Mertk-deficient mice homozygous for the B6 modifier allele display degeneration only in the far periphery, even at 8 months of age, and have improved retinal function compared to animals homozygous for the 129 allele. We genetically mapped the modifier to an approximately 2-megabase critical interval that includes Tyro3, a paralog of Mertk. Tyro3 expression in the outer retina varies with modifier genotype in a manner characteristic of a cis-acting expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL), with the B6 allele conferring an approximately three-fold higher expression level. Loss of Tyro3 function accelerates the pace of photoreceptor degeneration in Mertk knockout mice, and TYRO3 protein is more abundant in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) adjacent to preserved central retinal regions of Mertk knockout mice homozygous for the B6 modifier allele. Endogenous human TYRO3 protein co-localizes with nascent photoreceptor outer segment (POS) phagosomes in a primary RPE cell culture assay, and expression of murine Tyro3 in cultured cells stimulates phagocytic ingestion of POS. Our findings demonstrate that Tyro3 gene dosage modulates Mertk-associated retinal degeneration, provide strong evidence for a direct role for TYRO3 in RPE phagocytosis, and suggest that an eQTL can modify a recessive IPD.
Confirmatory factor analysis of the thyroid-related quality of life questionnaire

Background and aim: Thyroid diseases are prevalent and chronic. With treatment, quality of life is restored in most, but not all patients. Construct validity of the thyroid-related quality of life questionnaire, ThyPRO, has been established by multi-trait scaling, but not evaluated with more elaborate methods. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate dimensionality of the ThyPRO scales and to attempt to understand possible item misfit through structural equation modeling for categorical data. Methods: The current 85-item version of ThyPRO consists of 13 scales, covering domains of physical (4 scales) and mental (2 scales) symptoms, function and well-being (3 scales) and participation/social function (4 scales). The data were collected from a cross-sectional sample of 907 thyroid patients. One-factor confirmatory models were fitted to each scale, and evaluated by model fit statistics (comparative fit index >0.95, root mean square error of approximation <0.08), magnitude of factor loadings, model residual correlations and modification indices (MI). Indications of multi-dimensionality were tested in bi-factor models. Possible item misfit was evaluated in a combined, investigational model. Results: Each ThyPRO scale was adequately represented by a unidimensional model after minor revisions. Eleven items were identified in the unidimensional models as potentially misfitting and were investigated further by multidimensional modeling. Conclusion: Elaborate psychometric modeling supported the construct validity of the ThyPRO. However, 11 potentially misfitting items and 18 items with local dependence to other items are candidates for removal in future item reduction processes.