Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Alternative reproductive strategies and the maintenance of female color polymorphism in damselflies

Abstract Genetic polymorphisms are powerful model systems to study the maintenance of diversity in nature. In some systems, polymorphisms are limited to female coloration; these are thought to have arisen as a consequence of reducing male mating harassment, commonly resulting in negative frequency‐dependent selection on female color morphs. One example is the damselfly Ischnura elegans, which shows three female color morphs and strong sexual conflict over mating rates. Here, we present research integrating male tactics, and female evolutionary strategies (female mating behavior and morph‐specific female fecundity) in populations with different morph‐specific mating frequencies, to obtain an understanding of mating rates in nature that goes beyond the mere measure of color frequencies. We found that female morph behavior differed significantly among but not within morphs (i.e., female morph behavior was fixed). In contrast, male tactics were strongly affected by the female morph frequency in the population. Laboratory work comparing morph‐specific female fecundity revealed that androchrome females have lower fecundity than both of the gynochrome female morphs in the short term (3‐days), but over a 10‐day period one of the gynochrome female morphs became more fecund than either of the other morphs. In summary, our study found sex‐specific dynamics in response to different morph frequencies and also highlights the importance of studying morph‐specific fecundities across different time frames to gain a better understanding of the role of alternative reproductive strategies in the maintenance of female‐limited color polymorphism.
Facial expression recognition based on Local Sign Directional Pattern

In this paper, we propose a novel local feature descriptor, Local Sign Directional Pattern (LSDP), for face expression recognition. LSDP encodes the directional information of the face's textures-i.e., the texture's structure-in a compact way, producing a more discriminating code than other state-of-the-art methods. The structure of each micro-pattern is encoded by using its prominent directions and sign-which allows it to distinguish among similar structural patterns that have different intensity transitions. We divide the face into several regions, from which we extract the distributions of the LSDP features. These features are concatenated into a feature vector, and used as a face descriptor, and the expression recognition is obtained with the aid of Support Vector Machine classifiers.
Risk Factors for End‐Stage Kidney Disease After Pediatric Liver Transplantation

Adult liver transplant (LT) recipients commonly develop advanced kidney disease. However, burden of end‐stage kidney disease (ESKD) after pediatric LT has not been well‐described. We performed a retrospective cohort study of pediatric LTs in the United States from 1990 to 2010. Multivariable Cox regression models were fit to determine risk factors for ESKD and death. Eight thousand nine hundred seventy six children received LTs. During median follow‐up of 7.8 years, 2005 (22%) subjects died (mortality rate 26.1 cases/1000 person‐years); 167 (2%) developed ESKD (incidence rate 2.2 cases/1000 person‐years). Risk factors for ESKD included older age at LT (highest risk age >15 vs. < 5 years, HR = 4.94, p < 0.001), hepatitis C (HR 2.79, p = 0.004), liver re‐transplant (HR 2.67, p < 0.001), eGFR pre‐LT < 60 versus ≥ 60 (HR 2.37, p < 0.001), hepatitis B (HR 2.25, p = 0.027), black race (HR 1.46, p = 0.046), and male sex (HR 1.44, p = 0.022). LT recipients with ESKD had increased risk of mortality (HR 2.37, p < 0.001). Among pediatric LT recipients, rate of ESKD was lower than among adults and far exceeded by rate of death, however follow‐up time in this study may underestimate lifetime burden of ESKD. Although uncommon, ESKD was highly associated with mortality. Pediatric LT recipients should be routinely monitored for kidney disease, particularly those at highest risk of ESKD.
A new old age?: Exploring the values, attitudes and expectations of baby boomers and their implications for policy and practice in an ageing society

As a large age cohort, baby boomers needs, attitudes and behaviour can have a substantial impact on society. Despite international predictions that older boomers will behave in very different ways to current generations of older people little scholarly research has to date been done to explore „kiwi boomers‟ attitudes to ageing or the underlying values that may predispose them to behave in a particular manner as older workers, consumers, voters and family members. This study explores boomers views about their own ageing and considers how their expectations, attitudes and beliefs and underlying values may influence their behaviour as they age. Policy implications are then considered. Discourse analysis reveals prevailing paradigms and the degree of disparity or congruence with boomers‟ views is considered. Eleven focus groups were held in urban and semi-rural settings around New Zealand with boomers born 1946 – 1965, to explore participants' views on ageing, their expected lifestyle in future years, what forms of assistance they expected to give or receive, and what attitudes and values they felt baby boomers typically had that may influence their behaviour in older age. Results are triangulated with existing data on boomers in New Zealand. Where possible comparisons are drawn with boomers in other countries and with older and younger generations in New Zealand. Results indicate these boomers have a sense of common identity. Many articulated and appeared to have internalised common discourses about the boomer generation, although differences between older and younger, urban and provincial, socio-economic and ethnic groups were apparent. Most believed they would age differently to current generations of older people. These boomers are interested in new forms of work, more flexible, creative lifestyles and more supportive living arrangements. They have a strong work ethic, but they value work/life balance, choice, freedom and autonomy in decision-making. They anticipate working longer, but on their own terms. They believe they should provide for their families, but the state has a responsibility to reduce inequities and support those in need. Like their parents they value self-reliance and independence, but also inter-dependence and inter-generational care responsibilities. There was a desire for more innovative intra-cohort care and support. Despite areas of commonality, a key feature of the boomer cohort is their diversity and this presents a major challenge for policy and service development. Boomers accept their status as change agents. They anticipate drawing on previous experience to collectively influence policy. While it remains unclear on which issues they may converge, findings suggest the boomer cohort has the potential and inclination to advocate for social change. Processes of policy development will need to adapt to effectively work, with and not against this cohort.
Generation of Super-Resolution Video from Low Resolution Video Sequences: A Novel Approach

The term "super-resolution" refers to the process of obtaining higher-resolution images from several lower-resolution ones, i.e. resolution enhancement. The quality improvement is caused by sub-pixel shifted from each other between images. Each low resolution image contains new information about the scene and super-resolution aims at combining these to give a higher resolution image. Super-resolution allows us in overcoming the limitations of the imaging system (resolving limit of the sensors) without the need for additional hardware. This paper deals with high resolution video reconstruction from low resolution video. An algorithm for enhancing the resolution of video through histogram based segmentation and frequency domain registration is proposed. Segmentation of the video is done using Histogram method and frequency domain approach is used for registration of images. Bi-cubic interpolation is applied to this video to generate the super-resolution (SR) video. Based on the requirements additional brightness and temporal resolution can be added to the SR video. It is tested on indoor/outdoor real video data, demonstrating the feasibility of the approach, and then results are presented. Qualitative analysis is presented to analyze the quality of reconstructed Super resolution video comparing to input Low Resolution video. The results of this work can be used for object tracking and identification. Keywords: SR( Super Resolution); HR (High Resolution); LR(Low Resolution);Temporal Video Segmentation.
Social functioning in children with ADHD treated with long-term methylphenidate and multimodal psychosocial treatment.

OBJECTIVE To test that methylphenidate combined with intensive multimodal psychosocial intervention, which includes social skills training, significantly enhances social functioning in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) compared with methylphenidate alone and methylphenidate plus nonspecific psychosocial treatment (attention control). METHOD One hundred three children with ADHD (ages 7-9), free of conduct and learning disorders, who responded to short-term methylphenidate were randomized for 2 years to receive (1) methylphenidate alone, (2) methylphenidate plus multimodal psychosocial treatment that included social skills training, or (3) methylphenidate plus attention control treatment. Assessments included parent, child, and teacher ratings of social function and direct school observations in gym. RESULTS No advantage was found on any measure of social functioning for the combination treatment over methylphenidate alone or methylphenidate plus attention control. Significant improvement occurred across all treatments and continued over 2 years. CONCLUSIONS In young children with ADHD, there is no support for clinic-based social skills training as part of a long-term psychosocial intervention to improve social behavior. Significant benefits from methylphenidate were stable over 2 years.
A Framework for Discovering Associations from the Annotated Biological Web

During the last decade, biomedical researchers gained access to the entire human genome, reliable high-throughput biotechnologies, and affordable computational resources and network access. In combination, these new tools created a new model for biomedical research that no longer uses computational tools merely to monitor research, but instead exploits these tools to acquire knowledge and make discoveries. Consider a simplified Web of three publicly accessible resources Entrez Gene, OMIM and PubMed, in Figure 1. Data entries in each resource are annotated with terms from multiple controlled vocabularies (CVs). The hyperlinks between data entries in any two resources form a relationship between the two resources and is represented by a (virtual) link. Thus, an entry in Entrez Gene, annotated with GO terms, can have hyperlinks to multiple entries in PubMed that are annotated with MeSH terms.Similarly, OMIM entries, annotated with terms from SNOMED CT may have hyperlinks to entries in Entrez Gene and PubMed. This forms a rich Web of annotated data entries. Our objective in this research is to develop tools to discover meaningful patterns across resources and ontologies. As a first stage in teasing out patterns, we execute a protocol to follow hyperlinks, extract annotations, and generate LSLink datasets. We then mine the term-links of the LSLink datasets to find potentially meaningful associations. Biologically meaningful associations of pairs of CV terms may yield actionable nuggets of previously unknown knowledge. Moreover, the bridge of associations across CV terms will reflect the practice of how scientists annotate data across hyperlinked repositories.
PEMBELAJARAN BERBASIS PROJEK DENGAN PENDEKATAN JELAJAH ALAM SEKITAR SEBAGAI MODEL PERKULIAHAN FISIOLOGI HEWAN

Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan tujuan untuk menguji efektivitas penerapan model pembelajaran berbasis projek (Project Based Learning/PBL) dengan pendekatan Jelajah Alam Sekitar (JAS) pada perkuliahan Fisiologi Hewan bagi mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Biologi. Penelitian ini merupakan quasi eksperimen dengan desain one shot case study. Populasi dalam penelitian ini adalah mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Biologi dan sebagai sampel adalah mahasiswa semester 4 Prodi Pendidikan Biologi rombel 1,2,dan 3 tahun ajaran 2010 / 2011 yang mengambil mata kuliah Fisiologi Hewan. Pengambilan sampel dengan teknik purposive random sampling. Sebagai variabel bebas adalah penerapan model PBL dengan pendekatan JAS, sedangkan sebagai variabel terikat adalah efektivitas model pembelajaran yang diterapkan dilihat dari hasil belajar, aktivitas siswa dan keterlaksanaan kegiatan yang diprogramkan. Sumber data penelitian adalah mahasiswa. Data yang diambil adalah nilai ujian tulis, nilai laporan, nilai presentasi , aktivitas mahasiswa serta tanggapan keterlaksanaan PBL dengan pendekatan JAS. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa penerapan model PBL dengan pendekatan JAS telah dapat mencapai indikator-indikator yang ditetapkan yaitu mahasiswa yang memperoleh nilai minimal B mencapai 70%, tanpa nilai D dan E, mahasiswa dengan kriteria keaktifan pada kategori tinggi dan sangat tinggi mencapai minimal 80%, dan tingkat keterlaksanaan kegiatan dalam pembelajaran berbasis projek dengan pendekatan JAS mencapai 80%. Simpulan yang dapat diambil dari penelitian ini adalah model pembelajaran berbasis projek dengan pendekatan JAS pada perkuliahan Fisiologi Hewan efektif diterapkan. Kata Kunci : Pendekatan JAS, Pembelajaran Berbasis Projek, Mata Kuliah Fisiologi Hewan
Social contracts and human–computer interaction with simulated adapting agents

Game theory is commonly used to study social behavior in cooperative or competitive situations. One socioeconomic game, Stag Hunt, involves the trade-off between social and individual benefit by offering the option to hunt a low-payoff hare alone or a high-payoff stag cooperatively. Stag Hunt encourages the creation of social contracts as a result of the payoff matrix, which favors cooperation. By playing Stag Hunt with set-strategy computer agents, the social component is degraded because of the inability of subjects to dynamically affect the outcomes of iterated games, as would be the case when playing against another subject. However, playing with an adapting agent has the potential to evoke unique and complex reactions in subjects because of its ability to change its own strategy based on its experience over time, both within and between games. In the present study, 40 subjects played the iterated Stag Hunt with five agents differing in strategy: exclusive hare hunting, exclusive stag hunting, random, Win-Stay-Lose-Shift, and adapting. The results indicated that the adapting agent caused subjects to spend more time and effort in each game, exhibiting a more complicated path to their destination. This suggests that adapting agents exhibit behavior similar to human opponents, evoking more natural social responses in subjects.
Autoradiography Imaging in Targeted Alpha Therapy with Timepix Detector

There is a lack of data related to activity uptake and particle track distribution in targeted alpha therapy. These data are required to estimate the absorbed dose on a cellular level as alpha particles have a limited range and traverse only a few cells. Tracking of individual alpha particles is possible using the Timepix semiconductor radiation detector. We investigated the feasibility of imaging alpha particle emissions in tumour sections from mice treated with Thorium-227 (using APOMAB), with and without prior chemotherapy and Timepix detector. Additionally, the sensitivity of the Timepix detector to monitor variations in tumour uptake based on the necrotic tissue volume was also studied. Compartmental analysis model was used, based on the obtained imaging data, to assess the Th-227 uptake. Results show that alpha particle, photon, electron, and muon tracks were detected and resolved by Timepix detector. The current study demonstrated that individual alpha particle emissions, resulting from targeted alpha therapy, can be visualised and quantified using Timepix detector. Furthermore, the variations in the uptake based on the tumour necrotic volume have been observed with four times higher uptake for tumours pretreated with chemotherapy than for those without chemotherapy.
Online Promotion and Its Influence on Destination Awareness and Loyalty in the Tourism Industry

Internet is commonly accepted as an important aspect in successful tourism promotion as well as destination marketing in this era. The main aim of this study is to explore how online promotion and its influence on destination awareness and loyalty in the tourism industry. This study proposes a structural model of the relationships among online promotion (OP), destination awareness (DA), tourist satisfaction (TS) and destination loyalty (DL). Randomly-selected respondents from the population of international tourists departing from Vietnamese international airports were selected as the questionnaire samples in the study. Initially, the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to test the validity of constructs, and the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), using AMOS, was used to test the significance of the proposed hypothesizes model. The results show that the relationships among OP, DA, TS and DL appear significant in this study. The result also indicates that online promotion could improve the destination loyalty. Finally, the academic contribution, implications of the findings for tourism marketers and limitation are also discussed in this study.
International Portfolio Equilibrium and the Current Account

This paper analyses the determinants of international asset portfolios, using a neoclassical dynamic general equilibrium model with home bias in consumption. For plausible parameter values, the model explains the fact that typical investors hold most of their wealth in domestic assets (portfolio home bias). In the model, the current account balance (change in net foreign assets) is mainly driven by fluctuations in equity prices; the current account is predicted to be highly volatile and to exhibit low serial correlation; changes in a country's foreign equity assets and liabilities are predicted to be highly positively correlated. The paper constructs current account series that include external capital gains/losses, for 17 OECD economies. The behaviour of those series confirms the theoretical predictions.
Identification of a basic protein of Mr 75,000 as an accessory desmosomal plaque protein in stratified and complex epithelia

Desmosomes are intercellular adhering junctions characterized by a special structure and certain obligatory constituent proteins such as the cytoplasmic protein, desmoglein. Desmosomal fractions from bovine muzzle epidermis contain, in addition, a major polypeptide of Mr approximately 75,000 ("band 6 protein") which differs from all other desmosomal proteins so far identified by its positive charge (isoelectric at pH approximately 8.5 in the denatured state) and its avidity to bind certain type I cytokeratins under stringent conditions. We purified this protein from bovine muzzle epidermis and raised antibodies to it. Using affinity-purified antibodies, we identified a protein of identical SDS-PAGE mobility and isoelectric pH in all epithelia of higher complexity, including representatives of stratified, complex (pseudostratified) and transitional epithelia as well as benign and malignant human tumors derived from such epithelia. Immunolocalization studies revealed the location of this protein along cell boundaries in stratified and complex epithelia, often resolved into punctate arrays. In some epithelia it seemed to be restricted to certain cell types and layers; in rat cornea, for example, it was only detected in upper strata. Electron microscopic immunolocalization showed that this protein is a component of the desmosomal plaque. However, it was not found in the desmosomes of all simple epithelia examined, in the tumors and cultured cells derived thereof, in myocardiac and Purkinje fiber cells, in arachnoideal cells and meningiomas, and in dendritic reticulum cells of lymphoid tissue, i.e., all cells containing typical desmosomes. The protein was also absent in all nondesmosomal adhering junctions. From these results we conclude that this basic protein is not an obligatory desmosomal plaque constituent but an accessory component specific to the desmosomes of certain kinds of epithelial cells with stratified tissue architecture. This suggests that the Mr 75,000 basic protein does not serve general desmosomal functions but rather cell type-specific ones and that the composition of the desmosomal plaque can be different in different cell types. The possible diagnostic value of this protein as a marker in cell typing is discussed.
Cytological Indices of Peripheral Blood and Bone Marrow Smears in Albino Rats infected with Trypanosoma Brucei Brucei

Trypanosomiasis is a debilitating disease in man and animals which has adversely affected economic and social well-being of sub-Saharan Africans. Haematological parameters were determined in fifty (50) male albino rats, in which thirty five (35) were infected with Typanosoma brucei brucei and the effects of this condition was assessed on peripheral blood and bone marrow cells using cytochemical stains. Data obtained were statistically compared and P˂0.05 was considered significant. Rats in infected group had significantly lower HCT, RBC, HGB and MCV levels and significantly higher WBC, MCHC, lymphocytes and mixed cells levels compared with controls. Cytochemical reactions of bone marrow cells revealed that all granulocytes, except myelocytes and basophils, were peroxidase positive. It could be concluded in this study that the infected rat subjects suffered severe haemolytic anaemia and leucocytosis observed in the infected group attributed to the immune response to trypanosome infection.
ECG characteristics according to the presence of late gadolinium enhancement on cardiac MRI in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Background Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) on cardiac MRI (CMR) has been described as an independent predictive factor of cardiovascular events among patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). LGE and Q waves are considered as myocardial scar markers but their relation in the context of HCM is poorly established and has to be more supported. The objective of the study was to compare ECG findings in the presence or absence of LGE. Methods 42 patients with HCM confirmed by CMR were included in the study. ECG abnormalities including abnormal Q waves and five ECG scores of left ventricular hypertrophy were assessed and compared according to LGE presence and its extension. Some CMR features, such as septal to posterior wall thickness ratio, were also studied according to the presence of LGE and the presence of abnormal Q waves. Results Abnormal Q waves were more prevalent in the LGE (+) group (60% vs 12%; p=0.002), but there was no correlation between location of Q waves on ECG and territory of LGE on CMR. Among patients with LGE, quantitative analysis of LGE was not different in the presence or absence of Q waves. In contrast to the LGE mass, septal to posterior wall thickness was higher in patients with abnormal Q waves (2.3±0.7 vs 1.6±0.5; p=0.012). Conclusions Although abnormal Q waves were more prevalent in the presence of LGE, no correlation was found with the LGE location and extent. These data suggest that abnormal electrical activation of the hypertrophied ventricular septum represented by a high septal to posterior wall thickness ratio seems to be an important mechanism of abnormal Q waves in HCM.