Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genome-wide association study identifies loci and candidate genes for internal organ weights in Simmental beef cattle.

Cattle internal organs as accessible raw materials have a long history of being widely used in beef processing, feed and pharmaceutical industry. These traits not only are of economic interest to breeders, but they are intrinsically linked to many valuable traits, such as growth, health, and productivity. Using the Illumina Bovine HD 770K SNP array, we performed a genome-wide association study for heart weight, liver weight, spleen weight, lung weight, and kidney weight in 1,217 Simmental cattle. In our research, 38 significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) ( P < 1.49 × 10-6) were identified for five internal organ weight traits. These SNPs are within or near 13 genes, and some of them have been reported previously, including NDUFAF4, LCORL, BT.94996, SLIT2, FAM184B, LAP3, BBS12, MECOM, CD300LF, HSD17B3, TLR4, MXI1, and MB21D2. In addition, we detected four haplotype blocks on BTA6 containing 18 significant SNPs associated with spleen weight. Our results offer worthy insights into understanding the genetic mechanisms of internal organs' development, with potential application in breeding programs of Simmental beef cattle.
Stylistic Variation in Social Media Part-of-Speech Tagging

Social media features substantial stylistic variation, raising new challenges for syntactic analysis of online writing. However, this variation is often aligned with author attributes such as age, gender, and geography, as well as more readily-available social network metadata. In this paper, we report new evidence on the link between language and social networks in the task of part-of-speech tagging. We find that tagger error rates are correlated with network structure, with high accuracy in some parts of the network, and lower accuracy elsewhere. As a result, tagger accuracy depends on training from a balanced sample of the network, rather than training on texts from a narrow subcommunity. We also describe our attempts to add robustness to stylistic variation, by building a mixture-of-experts model in which each expert is associated with a region of the social network. While prior work found that similar approaches yield performance improvements in sentiment analysis and entity linking, we were unable to obtain performance improvements in part-of-speech tagging, despite strong evidence for the link between part-of-speech error rates and social network structure.
Modeling and Analysis of Beta Oscillations in the Basal Ganglia

Enhanced beta (12–30 Hz) oscillatory activity in the basal ganglia (BG) is a prominent feature of the Parkinsonian state in animal models and in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Increased beta oscillations are associated with severe dopaminergic striatal depletion. However, the mechanisms underlying these pathological beta oscillations remain elusive. Inspired by the experimental observation that only subsets of neurons within each nucleus in the BG exhibit oscillatory activities, a computational model of the BG-thalamus neuronal network is proposed, which is characterized by subdivided nuclei within the BG. Using different currents externally applied to the neurons within a given nucleus, neurons behave according to one of the two subgroups, named “-N” and “-P,” where “-N” and “-P” denote the normal and the Parkinsonian states, respectively. The ratio of “-P” to “-N” neurons indicates the degree of the Parkinsonian state. Simulation results show that if “-P” neurons have a high degree of connectivity in the subthalamic nucleus (STN), they will have a significant downstream effect on the generation of beta oscillations in the globus pallidus. Interestingly, however, the generation of beta oscillations in the STN is independent of the selection of the “-P” neurons in the external segment of the globus pallidus (GPe), despite the reciprocal structure between STN and GPe. This computational model may pave the way to revealing the mechanism of such pathological behaviors in a realistic way that can replicate experimental observations. The simulation results suggest that the STN is more suitable than GPe as a deep brain stimulation target.
A 99.1% efficient, 490 W/in3 power density power factor correction front end based on a 7-level flying capacitor multilevel converter

This paper presents a power factor correction (PFC) front end based on a GaN-Based 7-level flying capacitor multilevel (FCML) boost converter. Compared to the conventional 2-level boost converter, the proposed 7-level FCML converter features the use of low-voltage-rated transistors, reduced voltage stress and high effective switching frequency on the filter inductor. These characteristics of the FCML converter lead to drastic reduction in the filter inductor size while maintaining high efficiency, and therefore significantly improve the power density of the PFC frond end compared to conventional solutions. On the other hand, the small inductance imposes challenges for the PFC control. The dynamics of the 7-level FCML converter has been analyzed and a feedforward control has been implemented to overcome these challenges. A hardware prototype is designed for universal AC input (90 VAC to 265 VAC), 400 V DC output at 1.5 kW power rating. The hardware prototype demonstrates improved efficiency and power density as well as power factor and THD performance compared to existing solutions. A peak efficiency of 99.07% and a power density of 490 W/in3 has been experimentally verified.
LMP-Based Pricing for Energy Storage in Local Market to Facilitate PV Penetration

Increasing Photovoltaic (PV) penetration and low-carbon demand can potentially lead to two different flow peaks, generation, and load, within distribution networks. This will not only constrain PV penetration but also pose serious threats to network reliability. This paper uses energy storage (ES) to reduce system congestion cost caused by the two peaks by sending cost-reflective economic signals to affect ES operation in responding to network conditions. First, a new charging and discharging (C/D) strategy based on binary search method is designed for ES, which responds to system congestion cost over time. Then, a novel pricing method, based on locational marginal pricing (LMP), is designed for ES. The pricing model is derived by evaluating ES impact on the network power flows and congestions from the loss and congestion components in LMP. The impact is then converted into an hourly economic signal to reflect ES operation. The proposed ES C/D strategy and pricing methods are validated on a real local grid supply point area. Results show that the proposed LMP-based pricing is efficient to capture the feature of ES and provide signals for affecting its operation. This work can further increase network flexibility and the capability of networks to accommodate increasing PV penetration.
High Dose Rate Intraluminal Brachytherapy (HDRILBT) as a Boost to External Beam Radiation Therapy (EBRT)in Advanced Inoperable Carcinoma Esophagus

Aim of study: In certain clinical situations HDRILBT may be an effective alternative modality as a boost to external beam radiation therapy in advanced inoperable carcinoma esophagus. In this study, we evaluated the feasibility, complications and short term response of HDRILBT used as a boost after completion of 40 Gy EBRT with curative intent in inoperable advance stage esophageal cancer. Materials and Methods: After 40 Gy EBRT, 28 patients who could be intubated with 16 F Levine’s tube was given high dose rate (HDRILBT) and formed the study group. The prescription point was at 1 cm from the central axis of the oesophageal catheter. A total dose of 10 Gy in 2 fractions at weekly intervals was prescribed. Results: Treatment result was analysed after 3 months of completion of treatment. It was consisted of clinical evaluation, endoscopic evaluation and contrast enhanced CT scan thorax of the patients. Grade 1 & 2 oesophagitis was seen in 21 patients. 3 patients had Grade 3 & 4 oesophagitis (RTOG scale). Stricture formation was seen in 3 patients. In one patient, tracheoesophageal fistula was developed 3 months after treatment. Complete Response was seen in 20 patients (71%). Partial response was seen in 4 patients (14%). Stationary and progressive disease was seen in 4 patients (14%). Relief in dysphagia was seen in 22 (78%) patients. Conclusion: In selected cases use of HDRILBT as a boost to EBRT is a feasible option to obtain a higher dose for improved local control with acceptable complications.
gemm 3 : Constant-Workspace High-Performance Multiplication of Three Matrices for Matrix Chaining

The generalized matrix chain problem considers how to efficiently compute a series of matrix multiplications where some of the operands may be inverted, transposed, or have mathematical properties that can be used to increase performance. Solutions to this problem often involve series of calls to high-performance implementations of matrix multiplication (gemm). We introduce a primitive, gemm3, which multiplies three general matrices, to aid in solving this problem. By taking advantage of the structure of modern algorithms for gemm, we derive an algorithm for gemm3 which can multiply three matrices using only a constant amount of additional memory. Current approaches to such multiplications require a temporary buffer than can be arbitrarily large. We present experimental results which show that our algorithm retains performance comparable to that of current methods.
Not only chemotherapy in the second-line treatment of metastatic gastric cancer

poses a significant risk to the validity of this meta-analysis. In regards to the similarities between our study and the study conducted by Mass et al. [6], we do acknowledge that all six of their cited radical prostatectomy studies were also included in our analysis. However, in contrast to Mass et al., the goal of our study was to compare the differential effect of statins on biochemical recurrence by primary treatment modality (radical prostatectomy as opposed to radiotherapy). There was also concern that the study by Zaorsky et al. [7] may have heavily influenced the results of the meta-analysis due to their use of multiple logistic regression analysis. However, hazard ratios from survival analysis obtained from direct e-mail correspondence with the authors were used in our meta-analysis instead of odds ratios (Figure 2). In addition, we carried out an inference analysis demonstrating that omission of the data from this individual study, or any other one study, did not significantly influence our overall estimate of effect. The inclusion of abstracts, in addition to full-text articles, was listed as acceptable in our Methods section. The use of the term ‘full-text analysis’ in Figure 1 was meant to indicate that we analyzed the full text of the 25 eligible articles if available, not that we limited our analysis to only full-text articles. We wholeheartedly agree that this meta-analysis is not designed to be the final word on this subject, and should be updated frequently to include new articles in this rapidly evolving body of literature. We hope to inspire further research by generating new hypotheses that can explored in greater depth in the future, preferably in a prospective manner.
Peers and parents: a comparison between neural activation when winning for friends and mothers in adolescence

Abstract Rewards reliably elicit ventral striatum activity. More recently studies have shown that vicarious rewards elicit similar activation. Ventral striatum responses to rewards for self peak during adolescence. However, it is currently not well understood how ventral striatum responses to vicarious rewards develop. In this study, we test this question using behavioral and fMRI data. A total of 233 participants aged 9–26 years old played a gambling game in the scanner in which they could win or lose money for themselves, their best friend and mother. Participants rated how close they felt to their friend and mother and how much they liked winning for them. These ratings were positively correlated. On the neural level males showed higher responses to winning for a friend, but there were no age differences. In contrast, there was a quadratic effect of age when winning for mother, showing heightened ventral striatum activity in mid-adolescence. Furthermore, there was an interaction between age and sex; for females responses to winning for friends become stronger with age relative to winning for mothers. In conclusion, this study provided evidence for elevated ventral striatum responses for mothers in mid-adolescence, and a shift in ventral striatum responses towards peers in girls.
History of cirrhosis and risk of digestive tract neoplasms.

BACKGROUND Cirrhosis is strongly related to liver cancer. Data on the possible association between cirrhosis and risk at other cancer sites are scanty. PATIENTS AND METHODS We analysed data from a network of case-control studies conducted in Italy between 1983 and 1997, including patients with cancers of the oral cavity and pharynx (520), oesophagus (405), stomach (731), colon (943), rectum (613), liver (425), gallbladder (63) and pancreas (395). The controls were 4297 patients admitted to hospitals for acute non-neoplastic conditions. RESULTS After strict allowance for alcohol drinking, tobacco smoking and history of hepatitis, the multivariate odds ratios for a history of cirrhosis were 4.7 [95% confidence interval (CI) 2.2-9.8] for neoplasms of the oral cavity and pharynx, 2.6 (95% CI 1.2-5.7) for the oesophagus, 1.0 (95% CI 0.4-2.5) for the stomach, 1.0 (95% CI 0.4-2.4) for the colon, 1.7 (95% CI 0.7-4.1) for the rectum, 20.5 (95% CI 12.3-34.2) for the liver, 2.1 (95% CI 0.3-16.8) for the gallbladder and 0.9 (95% CI 0.3-3.0) for the pancreas. CONCLUSIONS Our study confirms and further quantifies the increased risk of liver cancer in cirrhotic patients and is compatible with an increased risk of oral, pharyngeal and oesophageal cancers.
Traumatic Experiences Disrupt Amygdala – Prefrontal Connectivity

Psychological "trauma" refers to a sudden intense surge of anxiety secondary to some external event that exceeds the subject’s ability to cope with and to defend against. However, the term “trauma” is actually difficult to define due to its subjective nature. The American Psychiatric Association defines it as "an event or events that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others. " Examples of such events include military combat, violent personal attack, natural or humanmade disasters, and torture. For children, sexually traumatic events may include ageinappropriate sexual experiences without violence or injury (American Psychiatric Association. and American Psychiatric Association. Task Force on DSM-IV, 1994).
Measuring biomass fast pyrolysis kinetics: State of the art

Fast pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass is considered to be a promising thermochemical route for the production of drop‐in fuels and valuable chemicals. During the past decades, a comprehensive understanding of feedstock structure, fast pyrolysis kinetics, product distribution, and transport effects that govern the process has allowed to design better pyrolysis reactors and/or catalysts. A variety of lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks, like corn stover, pinewood, poplar, and model compounds like glucose, xylan, monolignols have been utilized to study the thermal decomposition at or close to fast pyrolysis conditions. Significant progress has been made in understanding the kinetics by developing unique setups such as drop‐tube, PHASR, and micropyrolyzer reactors in combination with the use of advanced analytical techniques such as comprehensive gas and liquid chromatography (GC, LC) with time‐of‐flight mass spectrometer (TOF‐MS). This has led to initial intrinsic kinetic models for biomass and its main components, namely cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, validated using experimental setups where the effects of heat and mass transfer on the performance of the process, expressed using Biot and pyrolysis numbers, are adequately negligible. Yet, not all aspects of fast pyrolysis kinetics of biomass components are equally well understood. The use of time‐resolved or multiplexed experimental techniques can further improve our understanding of reaction intermediates and their corresponding kinetic mechanisms. The novel experimental data combined with first principles based multiscale models can reshape biomass pyrolysis models and transform biomass fast pyrolysis to a more selective and energy efficient process.
Adaptive and Selective Seed Abortion Reveals Complex Conditional Decision Making in Plants

Behavior is traditionally attributed to animals only. Recently, evidence for plant behavior is accumulating, mostly from plant physiological studies. Here, we provide ecological evidence for complex plant behavior in the form of seed abortion decisions conditional on internal and external cues. We analyzed seed abortion patterns of barberry plants exposed to seed parasitism and different environmental conditions. Without abortion, parasite infestation of seeds can lead to loss of all seeds in a fruit. We statistically tested a series of null models with Monte Carlo simulations to establish selectivity and adaptiveness of the observed seed abortion patterns. Seed abortion was more frequent in parasitized fruits and fruits from dry habitats. Surprisingly, seed abortion occurred with significantly greater probability if there was a second intact seed in the fruit. This strategy provides a fitness benefit if abortion can prevent a sibling seed from coinfestation and if nonabortion of an infested but surviving single seed saves resources invested in the fruit coat. Ecological evidence for complex decision making in plants thus includes a structural memory (the second seed), simple reasoning (integration of inner and outer conditions), conditional behavior (abortion), and anticipation of future risks (seed predation).
Effects of antecedent soil moisture on runoff modeling in small semiarid watersheds of southeastern Arizona

Abstract. This study presents unique data on the effects of antecedent soil moisture on runoff generation in a semi-arid environment, with implications for process-based modeling of runoff. The data were collected from four small watersheds measured continuously from 2002 through 2010 in an environment where evapo-transpiration approaches 100% of the infiltrated water on the hillslopes. Storm events were generally intense and of short duration, and antecedent volumetric moisture conditions were dry, with an average in the upper 5 cm soil layer over the nine year period of 8% and a standard deviation of 3%. Sensitivity analysis of the model showed an average of 0.05 mm change in runoff for each 1% change in soil moisture, indicating an approximate 0.15 mm average variation in runoff accounted for by the 3% standard deviation of measured antecedent soil moisture. This compared to a standard deviation of 4.7 mm in the runoff depths for the measured events. Thus the low variability of soil moisture in this environment accounts for a relative lack of importance of storm antecedent soil moisture for modeling the runoff. Runoff characteristics simulated with a nine year average of antecedent soil moisture were statistically identical to those simulated with measured antecedent soil moisture, indicating that long term average antecedent soil moisture could be used as a substitute for measured antecedent soil moisture for runoff modeling of these watersheds. We also found no significant correlations between measured runoff ratio and antecedent soil moisture in any of the four watersheds.
Curve number estimation from Brazilian Cerrado rainfall and runoff data

The Curve Number (CN) method has been widely used to estimate runoff from rainfall events in Brazil; however, CN values for use in the Brazilian savanna (Cerrado) are poorly documented. In this study we used experimental plots to measure natural rain-fall-driven rates of runoff under undisturbed Cerrado and under the main crops found in this region, and derive associated CN values from the measured data using five different statistical methods. Curve numbers obtained from the standard USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) table were suitable to estimate runoff for bare soil, soybeans (Glycine max [L.] Merr.), and sugarcane (Saccharum L.). However, CN values obtained from measured rainfall-runoff data (CN calibrated) provided better runoff estimates than the CN values from the standard table. The best CN values for the bare soil (hydrologic soil group B), soybeans, and sugarcane were 81.2 (78.5 to 83.9), 78.7 (75.9 to 81.5), and 70.2 (67.8 to 72.6). The CN method was not adequate to estimate runoff for the undisturbed Cerrado, bare soil (hydrologic soil group A), pasture, and millet (Pennisetum glaucum).
DNA PROFILING AS AN ADJUNCT QUALITY CONTROL/QUALITY ASSURANCE IN FORENSIC TOXICOLOGY

To investigate aircraft accidents, multiple postmortem biological samples of victims are submitted to the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute for toxicological evaluation. However, depending upon the nature of a particular accident, body components are often scattered, disintegrated, commingled, contaminated, and/or putrefied. These factors impose difficulties on victim identification, tissue matching, and thereby authentic sample analysis and result interpretation. Nevertheless, these quality control/quality assurance (QC/QA) related limitations can be overcome by using deoxyribose nucleic acid (DNA) profiling. This paper describes three situations where DNA analysis was instrumental in resolving a tissue mismatching/commingling issue, pinpointing an accessioning/analytical error, and interpreting an unusual analytical result. Biological samples from these cases were examined for six independently inherited genetic loci using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) suitable for analyzing degraded DNA generally encountered in putrefied/contaminated samples. These examples demonstrate the applicability of the PCR-based DNA profiling in a QC/QA program to enhance the effectiveness of forensic toxicology operation. However, such applicability will be feasible only in those setups where in-house DNA facilities are accessible.
Toward Intelligent Autonomous Agents for Cyber Defense: Report of the 2017 Workshop by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Research Group IST-152-RTG

This report summarizes the discussions and findings of the Workshop on Intelligent Autonomous Agents for Cyber Defence and Resilience organized by the NATO research group IST-152-RTG. The workshop was held in Prague, Czech Republic, on 18-20 October 2017. There is a growing recognition that future cyber defense should involve extensive use of partially autonomous agents that actively patrol the friendly network, and detect and react to hostile activities rapidly (far faster than human reaction time), before the hostile malware is able to inflict major damage, evade friendly agents, or destroy friendly agents. This requires cyber-defense agents with a significant degree of intelligence, autonomy, self-learning, and adaptability. The report focuses on the following questions: In what computing and tactical environments would such an agent operate? What data would be available for the agent to observe or ingest? What actions would the agent be able to take? How would such an agent plan a complex course of actions? Would the agent learn from its experiences, and how? How would the agent collaborate with humans? How can we ensure that the agent will not take undesirable destructive actions? Is it possible to help envision such an agent with a simple example?