Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence for adaptive male mate choice in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster

Theory predicts that males will benefit when they bias their mating effort towards females of higher reproductive potential, and that this discrimination will increase as males become more resource limited. We conducted a series of experiments to test these predictions in a laboratory population of the fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster. In this species, courtship and copulation have significant costs to males, and females vary greatly in fecundity, which is positively associated with body size. When given a simultaneous choice between small and large virgin females, males preferentially mated with larger, more fecund, females. Moreover, after males had recently mated they showed a stronger preference for larger females. These results suggest that male D. melanogaster adaptively allocate their mating effort in response to variation in female quality and provide some of the first support for the theoretical prediction that male stringency in mate choice increases as resources become more limiting.
Changes in calsequestrin, TNF‐α, TGF‐β and MyoD levels during the progression of skeletal muscle dystrophy in mdx mice: a comparative analysis of the quadriceps, diaphragm and intrinsic laryngeal muscles

In Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), the search for new biomarkers to follow the evolution of the disease is of fundamental importance in the light of the evolving gene and pharmacological therapies. In addition to the lack of dystrophin, secondary events including changes in calcium levels, inflammation and fibrosis greatly contribute to DMD progression and the molecules involved in these events may represent potential biomarkers. In this study, we performed a comparative evaluation of the progression of dystrophy within muscles that are differently affected by dystrophy (diaphragm; DIA and quadriceps; QDR) or spared (intrinsic laryngeal muscles) using the mdx mice model of DMD. We assessed muscle levels of calsequestrin (calcium‐related protein), tumour necrosis factor (TNF‐α; pro‐inflammatory cytokine), tumour growth factor (TGF‐β; pro‐fibrotic factor) and MyoD (muscle proliferation) vs. histopathology at early (1 and 4 months of age) and late (9 months of age) stages of dystrophy. Fibrosis was the primary feature in the DIA of mdx mice (9 months: 32% fibrosis), which was greater than in the QDR (9 months: 0.6% fibrosis). Muscle regeneration was the primary feature in the QDR (9 months: 90% of centrally nucleated fibres areas vs. 33% in the DIA). The QDR expressed higher levels of calsequestrin than the DIA. Laryngeal muscles showed normal levels of TNF‐α, TGF‐β and MyoD. A positive correlation between histopathology and cytokine levels was observed only in the diaphragm, suggesting that TNF‐α and TGF‐β serve as markers of dystrophy primarily for the diaphragm.
Access control mechanism using flexible multi‐layer structure for mesh‐based P2P live streaming systems

When thousands of new peers seek to join the peer‐to‐peer (P2P) system within a very short time (i.e., the so‐called flash crowd event), most of the peers suffer a long startup delay as a result of peer over‐competition. Accordingly, recent studies have proposed a slot‐based user access control (UAC) mechanism, which periodically admits a certain number of new peers to the system, and a user batch join (UBJ) mechanism, which preconstructs the new peers into a fixed‐size tree structure before peer join process. However, in the UAC mechanism, it is difficult to determine the optimal time slot length; while in the UBJ mechanism, it is difficult to determine the optimal tree size. Accordingly, the present study proposes a structured access control (SAC) mechanism, in which the new‐arriving peers are preconstructed to a flexible multilayer structure to overcome the limitation of a fixed‐size tree structure, and the number of peers in each layer of the structure is determined based on a consideration of the remaining upload bandwidth of the P2P system. Based on the assumption of a heterogeneous upload bandwidth capability of the peers, an analytical model is derived to describe the growth behavior of a P2P system with access control. It is shown that the simulation results for the growth rate of a P2P system based on the SAC mechanism are in good agreement with those obtained from the analytical model. In addition, the simulation results show that the SAC mechanism outperforms the UAC and UBJ mechanisms in terms of a more rapid system growth and a shorter average startup delay. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A Framework for the Structural Analysis of REST APIs

Today, REST APIs have established as a means for realizing distributed systems and are supposed to gain even more importance in the context of Cloud Computing, Internet of Things, and Microservices. Nevertheless, many existing REST APIs are known to be not well-designed, resulting in the absence of desirable quality attributes that truly RESTful systems entail. Although existing analysis show, that many REST APIs are not fully REST compliant, it is still an open issue how to improve this deficit and where to start. In this work, we introduce a framework for the structural analysis of REST APIs based on their description documents, as this allows for a comprehensive, well-structured analysis approach that also includes analyzing the corresponding API description languages. A first validation builds on a set of 286 real world API descriptions available as Swagger documents, and comprises their transformation into a canonical metamodel for REST APIs as well as a metrics-based analysis and discussion of their structural characteristics with respect to compliance with the REST architectural style.
Survey and Benchmark of Fully Integrated Switching Power Converters: Switched-Capacitor Versus Inductive Approach

This paper surveys and discusses the state-of-the-art of integrated switched-capacitor and inductive power converters. After introducing applications that drive the need for integrated switching power converters, implementation issues to be addressed for integrated switched-capacitor and inductive converters are given, as well as design examples. At the end of this paper, a comprehensive set of integrated power converters are compared in terms of the main specifications and performance metrics, thereby allowing a categorization and providing application-oriented design guidelines.
Multiuser Decoding Scheme for $K$-user Fading Multiple-Access Channel Based on Physical-Layer Network Coding

We propose a new practical multiuser decoding scheme based on physical-layer network coding (PNC) for a Kuser fading multiple-access channel. In the scheme, the users encode their messages with a same practical channel code, and the coded and modulated signals are transmitted simultaneously. The receiver first reconstructs K linear functions of the K users' messages based on PNC. Then all messages are recovered by solving the K linear equations. Compared to the well-known iterative detection and decoding schemes, we show by numerical results that the proposed scheme achieves near interference-free bound performance without utilizing receiver iterations.
Indications for use of thoracic, abdominal, pelvic, and vascular damage control interventions in trauma patients: A content analysis and expert appropriateness rating study

BACKGROUND The use of abbreviated or damage control (DC) interventions may improve outcomes in severely injured patients when appropriately indicated. We sought to determine which indications for DC interventions have been most commonly reported in the peer-reviewed literature to date and evaluate the opinions of experts regarding the appropriateness (expected benefit-to-harm ratio) of the reported indications for use in practice. METHODS Two investigators used an abbreviated grounded theory method to synthesize indications for 16 different DC interventions reported in peer-reviewed articles between 1983 and 2014 into a reduced number of named, content-characteristic codes representing unique indications. For each indication code, an international panel of trauma surgery experts (n = 9) then rated the appropriateness of conducting the DC intervention of interest in an adult civilian trauma patient. RESULTS The 424 indications identified in the literature were synthesized into 101 unique indications. The panel assessed 12 (70.6%) of the coded indications for the 7 different thoracic, 47 (78.3%) for the 7 different abdominal/pelvic, and 18 (75.0%) for the 2 different vascular interventions to be appropriate for use in practice. These included indications for rapid lung-sparing surgery (pneumonorrhaphy, pulmonary tractotomy, and pulmonary wedge resection) (n = 1); pulmonary tractotomy (n = 3); rapid, simultaneously stapled pneumonectomy (n = 1); therapeutic mediastinal and/or pleural space packing (n = 4); temporary thoracic closure (n = 3); therapeutic perihepatic packing (n = 28); staged pancreaticoduodenectomy (n = 2); temporary abdominal closure (n = 12); extraperitoneal pelvic packing (n = 5); balloon catheter tamponade (n = 6); and temporary intravascular shunting (n = 11). CONCLUSION This study identified a list of candidate appropriate indications for use of 12 different DC interventions that were suggested by authors of peer-reviewed articles and assessed by a panel of independent experts to be appropriate. These indications may be used to focus future research and (in the interim) guide surgical practice while studies are conducted to evaluate their impact on patient outcomes.
On the equivalence of separability and extendability of quantum states

Motivated by the notions of $k$-extendability and complete extendability of the state of a finite level quantum system as described by Doherty et al (Phys. Rev. A, 69:022308), we introduce parallel definitions in the context of Gaussian states and using only properties of their covariance matrices derive necessary and sufficient conditions for their complete extendability. It turns out that the complete extendability property is equivalent to the separability property of a bipartite Gaussian state. Following the proof of quantum de Finetti theorem as outlined in Hudson and Moody (Z. Wahrscheinlichkeitstheorie und Verw. Gebiete, 33(4):343--351), we show that separability is equivalent to complete extendability for a state in a bipartite Hilbert space where at least one of which is of dimension greater than 2. This, in particular, extends the result of Fannes, Lewis, and Verbeure (Lett. Math. Phys. 15(3): 255--260) to the case of an infinite dimensional Hilbert space whose C* algebra of all bounded operators is not separable.
Influencing Components of Human Savings Behavior in Sylhet City

Saving can be defined as difference between individual’s disposable income and its consumption. Saving is the normal human nature. This study aims at identifying some important components which influence human saving behavior. A highly structured questionnaire was prepared to collect primary data from 350 depositors from the different banks of Sylhet City in Bangladesh. Several tools (Descriptive Statistics, Factors Analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis) have been used to find out core cause of human savings. The researcher has found at least 15 components that influence human saving behavior. So there have been 1 dependent variable i.e., saving fascination and 15 different independent variables i.e., to be rich man, to buy durable goods, Children education, to travel in future, etc. The findings of the study reveal five core components which influence human saving behavior mostly i.e., to have enough social security, to earn profit, for some dependent persons, to be rich man and to travel in future.
Full-Wave Ground Motion Forecast for Southern California

The damages and loses caused by earthquakes are increased as urbanization increased in past decades. However, scientists currently cannot predict the time, location and magnitude of an earthquake accurately. Currently, the earthquake predictions are not yet reliable, so long-term probabilistic earthquake hazard analysis and rapid post-earthquake early warning are two alternative solutions to reduce potential earthquake damages [1-3].
Predictive Value of D‐Dimer Levels and Tissue Doppler Mitral Annular Systolic Velocity for Detection of Left Atrial Appendage Thrombus in Patients with Mitral Stenosis in Sinus Rhythm

Transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) is a gold standard test for diagnosis of left atrial (LA) thrombus, but it has limited sensitivity for identification of small thrombi within side lobes. Thus, the absence of visualizing a left atrial appendage (LAA) thrombus does not equate with the absence of a LAA thrombus.
Term Limits and Collaboration Across the Aisle

As members of democratic institutions, state legislators must frequently collaborate with each other to achieve their varied goals. Given the increased attention to questions of polarization and gridlock, scholars should be particularly interested in understanding legislator decisions to collaborate across party lines. This article is primarily concerned with how institutional arrangements—specifically term limits—structure legislators’ decisions to cosponsor bills with partisan opponents. Using data on bill cosponsorship from 41 states (82 chambers), we demonstrate that term limits reduce bipartisan cosponsorship even when controlling for average legislative tenure. We argue that term limits accomplish this by altering the incentives that legislators face. In addition, we demonstrate that the effect of term limits depends on the level of legislative professionalization. When professionalization is high, the negative effect of term limits on bipartisan cosponsorship is particularly pronounced.
Design of Ultra-Wideband Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna for Microwave Imaging Applications

The design of an ultra-wideband antipodal Vivaldi antenna to operate at frequency range from 2.1 GHz-27 GHz for microwave imaging applications is proposed in this paper. It includes regular triangular slits and opening rate of the aperture that extends the lower end of frequency band limitation and improves the radiation characteristics. Good radiation characteristics in terms of improvement of front-to-back ratio and gain are achieved. A prototype of the proposed antenna is fabricated and tested. The result of measurement of magnitude of reflection coefficient is in a good agreement with the simulated result. Feasibility of this antenna for the use in microwave imaging technique to obtain high-range resolution images of construction materials is demonstrated.
GIS Integrated Waste Production Modeling

In the present paper, an innovative model for the management of urban solid waste is proposed. The model consists of a spatio-temporal geodatabase, integrated in a geographical information system (GIS) environment. This model takes into consideration all the parameters of waste production, such as population density, commercial traffic, road network and the relative information (e.g. road width, etc). Temporal ground-based analysis has been applied for the estimation of the interrelations between the above factors, and the variations in waste production between residential and commercial areas. Therefore, the model takes into account a unified categorization of all the commercial and industrial activities in the area under study. The main goal of this innovative algorithmic approach is to develop an accurate estimation of the solid waste production rate that allows the identification of the optimal number and location of the waste bins. In this way, municipalities aware of social, economical and environmental factors related to waste management can achieve optimal planning for their services
Engineering Viable Foot-and-Mouth Disease Viruses with Increased Thermostability as a Step in the Development of Improved Vaccines

ABSTRACT We have rationally engineered foot-and-mouth disease virus to increase its stability against thermal dissociation into subunits without disrupting the many biological functions needed for its infectivity. Amino acid side chains located near the capsid intersubunit interfaces and either predicted or found to be dispensable for infectivity were replaced by others that could establish new disulfide bonds or electrostatic interactions between subunits. Two engineered viruses were normally infectious, genetically stable, and antigenically indistinguishable from the natural virus but showed substantially increased stability against irreversible dissociation. Electrostatic interactions mediated this stabilizing effect. For foot-and-mouth disease virus and other viruses, some evidence had suggested that an increase in virion stability could be linked to an impairment of infectivity. The results of the present study show, in fact, that virion thermostability against dissociation into subunits may not be selectively constrained by functional requirements for infectivity. The thermostable viruses obtained, and others similarly engineered, could be used for the production, using current procedures, of foot-and-mouth disease vaccines that are less dependent on a faultless cold chain. In addition, introduction of those stabilizing mutations in empty (nucleic acid-free) capsids could facilitate the production of infection-risk-free vaccines against the disease, one of the economically most important animal diseases worldwide.
Detection of antigenically distinct rotaviruses from infants

Antigenically distinct rotaviruses, i.e., viruses morphologically identical to conventional rotaviruses by electron microscopy, yet lacking the common group antigen(s) detected by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, were found in 2 of 51 fecal samples from Bulgarian infants with rotavirus gastroenteritis. These antigenically distinct viruses contained 11 segments of double-stranded RNA, but they demonstrated a unique RNA migration profile after electrophoresis of the genome RNA in polyacrylamide gels. This report confirms the presence of a new group of rotaviruses in humans. The significance of these viruses is currently unknown, and specific diagnostic tests must be developed for epidemiological studies to determine their role as human and veterinary pathogens and to evaluate their impact on proposed vaccine development programs.
Multivariate meta‐analysis: a robust approach based on the theory of U‐statistic

Meta‐analysis is the methodology for combining findings from similar research studies asking the same question. When the question of interest involves multiple outcomes, multivariate meta‐analysis is used to synthesize the outcomes simultaneously taking into account the correlation between the outcomes. Likelihood‐based approaches, in particular restricted maximum likelihood (REML) method, are commonly utilized in this context. REML assumes a multivariate normal distribution for the random‐effects model. This assumption is difficult to verify, especially for meta‐analysis with small number of component studies. The use of REML also requires iterative estimation between parameters, needing moderately high computation time, especially when the dimension of outcomes is large. A multivariate method of moments (MMM) is available and is shown to perform equally well to REML. However, there is a lack of information on the performance of these two methods when the true data distribution is far from normality. In this paper, we propose a new nonparametric and non‐iterative method for multivariate meta‐analysis on the basis of the theory of U‐statistic and compare the properties of these three procedures under both normal and skewed data through simulation studies. It is shown that the effect on estimates from REML because of non‐normal data distribution is marginal and that the estimates from MMM and U‐statistic‐based approaches are very similar. Therefore, we conclude that for performing multivariate meta‐analysis, the U‐statistic estimation procedure is a viable alternative to REML and MMM. Easy implementation of all three methods are illustrated by their application to data from two published meta‐analysis from the fields of hip fracture and periodontal disease. We discuss ideas for future research based on U‐statistic for testing significance of between‐study heterogeneity and for extending the work to meta‐regression setting. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Analyzing Returns and Pattern of Financial Data Using Log-linear Modeling

Technical analysis is useful for forecasting the price movement through the analysis of historic data. This sort of movement has Turn of the year effect also and useful for short term prediction. If the direction of price of two or more assets is same, it becomes necessary to analyze the returns also. We first use optimal band to predict the direction of price and create a contingency table of the data to analyze the pattern (movement) against returns. We use log-linear modeling for the analysis of the contingency table. We next include the volume of transactions as one more variable in the contin- gency table. The table consisting of three variables, Pattern, Returns and Volume is further analyzed by using log-linear modeling. We test various hypotheses of association for these variables by using Chi-square test for contingency tables.
On-chip micromachined dipole antenna with parasitic radiator for mm-wave wireless systems

In this paper, we present a micromachined dipole antenna with parasitic radiator. The antenna is designed for operation at 60 GHz. It consists of two Ig/2 dipole radiators fed by coplanar strips waveguide. Two slightly shorter dipoles are placed in proximity to the main radiators. They act as parasitic dipole arms which increase the bandwidth of the antenna. Two versions of the same antenna topology are presented in this paper in which one uses a high resistivity silicon substrate while the other uses a low resistivity one. The proposed antenna was optimized using HFSS and the final design was simulated using both HFSS and CST for verifying the obtained results. Both simulators are in good agreement. They show that the antenna has very good radiation characteristics where its directivity is around 7.5 dBi. The addition of the parasitic arms increased the bandwidth of the antenna from 1.3 GHz (3.62 GHz) to 4.3 GHz (7.44 GHz) when designed on high (low) resistivity silicon substrate.