Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Disturbance and density-dependent processes (competition and facilitation) influence the fine-scale genetic structure of a tree species' population.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Disturbances, dispersal and biotic interactions are three major drivers of the spatial distribution of genotypes within populations, the last of which has been less studied than the other two. This study aimed to determine the role of competition and facilitation in the degree of conspecific genetic relatedness of nearby individuals of tree populations. It was expected that competition among conspecifics will lead to low relatedness, while facilitation will lead to high relatedness (selection for high relatedness within clusters). METHODS The stand structure and spatial genetic structure (SGS) of trees were examined within old-growth and second-growth forests (including multi-stemmed trees at the edge of forests) of Nothofagus pumilio following large-scale fires in Patagonia, Chile. Genetic spatial autocorrelations were computed on a spatially explicit sampling of the forests using five microsatellite loci. As biotic plant interactions occur among immediate neighbours, mean nearest neighbour distance (MNND) among trees was computed as a threshold for distinguishing the effects of disturbances and biotic interactions. KEY RESULTS All forests exhibited a significant SGS for distances greater than the MNND. The old-growth forest genetic and stand structure indicated gap recolonization from nearby trees (significantly related trees at distances between 4 and 10 m). At distances smaller than the MNND, trees of the second-growth interior forest showed significantly lower relatedness, suggesting a fading of the recolonization structure by competition, whereas the second-growth edge forest showed a positive and highly significant relatedness among trees (higher among stems of a cluster than among stems of different clusters), resulting from facilitation. CONCLUSIONS Biotic interactions are shown to influence the genetic composition of a tree population. However, facilitation can only persist if individuals are related. Thus, the genetic composition in turn influences what type of biotic interactions will take place among immediate neighbours in post-disturbance forests.
Towards a multilevel approach of employee well-being

In this commentary, I respond to Ilies, Aw & Pluut’s (Intraindividual models of employee well-being: What have we learned and where do we go from here? , European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, in press) call for a theory that distinguishes between traits and states of employee well-being. I use Job Demands–Resources theory to illustrate how we may integrate within- and between-person approaches and findings to design an overall multilevel model of employee well-being. My perspective builds on Ilies et al. and recent findings of research combining relatively stable “traits” with fluctuating states of employee well-being. My goals with this commentary are three-fold: (1) give more insight into possible differences between variables at different levels of analysis; (2) use research to show how trait and state levels of (predictors of) employee well-being may interact; (3) propose a multilevel model that may stimulate future research on the topic.
Rest-Activity Cycle and Melatonin Rhythm in Blind Free-Runners Have Similar Periods

In the absence of the entraining light-dark cycle, most totally blind humans free-run, albeit with relative coordination to nonphotic zeitgebers. Such blind free-runners (BFRs) often attempt to maintain a 24-h sleep-wake schedule and consequently suffer from recurrent sleep disruption and daytime somnolence. This study was conducted to determine the periods of the free-running melatonin rhythm and of the rest-activity cycle in 16 BFRs. It was found that the non-24-h component of the rest-activity rhythm correlated with the observed period of the circadian pacemaker.
Parallel Plate Cavity Mode Suppression in Microstrip Circuit Packages Using a Lid of Nails

The suppression of parallel plate and cavity modes in shielded microstrip circuits is presented. To this aim a textured metal lid consisting of periodically located pins known as a bed of nails is employed. The mode suppression has a bandwidth of more than 2:1, and it does not interfere much with the microstrip circuit. Thereby, this mode suppression technique introduces a new advantageous packaging technology for high frequency circuits.
Planning-Based Narrative Generation in Simulated Game Universes

An agent-based social simulation is one way to add a story to simulated game universes within the game mechanics while preserving the autonomy of nonplay characters (NPCs). In this paper, we add a social reasoning element behind NPC actions to make their plans more story like. An AI planner is developed to combine plan search and logic inference about others' minds. An NPC agent equipped with the planner uses actions to change others' minds, and uses such mental changes to achieve its goal. We review the question of whether stories do arise from agent-based simulations by examining actual narrative segments generated by our NPC agents, and by an experimental exploration of the frequencies and lengths of narrative segments. A story facilitator, named divine intervention operator service (DIOS), makes stories happen when they are impossible via on-the-fly adjustment of character personalities.
Development of a human cardiac organoid injury model reveals innate regenerative potential

ABSTRACT The adult human heart possesses a limited regenerative potential following an ischemic event, and undergoes a number of pathological changes in response to injury. Although cardiac regeneration has been documented in zebrafish and neonatal mouse hearts, it is currently unknown whether the immature human heart is capable of undergoing complete regeneration. Combined progress in pluripotent stem cell differentiation and tissue engineering has facilitated the development of human cardiac organoids (hCOs), which resemble fetal heart tissue and can be used to address this important knowledge gap. This study aimed to characterize the regenerative capacity of immature human heart tissue in response to injury. Following cryoinjury with a dry ice probe, hCOs exhibited an endogenous regenerative response with full functional recovery 2 weeks after acute injury. Cardiac functional recovery occurred in the absence of pathological fibrosis or cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. Consistent with regenerative organisms and neonatal human hearts, there was a high basal level of cardiomyocyte proliferation, which may be responsible for the regenerative capacity of the hCOs. This study suggests that immature human heart tissue has an intrinsic capacity to regenerate. Summary: Human cardiac organoids, which represent immature tissue, show an innate regenerative response and robust recovery after cryoinjury without pathological fibrosis or hypertrophy.
ESTIMATION OF INTERIOR ORIENTATION PARAMETERS FROM CONSTRAINTS ON LINE MEASUREMENTS IN A SINGLE IMAGE

In this paper a method is presented for the estimation of interior orientation parameters and lens distortion using measurements of lines in a single image and constraints derived from a priori information on the orientation of the related object lines. The interior orientation parameters consist of the location of the principle point and the focal length. Radial lens distortion is modeled with one parameter. The straight image lines are extracted automatically using a line-growing algorithm. The constraints on the orientation of the object lines are parallelism and perpendicularity constraints. These constraints are specified automatically using a vanishing point detection algorithm. The two-step procedure starts with the least-squares estimation of the lens distortion using only parallelism constraints. In this step, the image line observations are checked for blunders and their precision is assessed. In the second step, the principal point and the focal length are estimated using adjusted observations from the first step and constraints for perpendicularity in addition to the parallelism constraints. The formal precision of the parameters results from propagation of variances. The precision turned out to be in the order of 0.1 mm for the tests performed with wide-angle imagery (focal length 9.2 mm, sensor size 8.6x6.9 mm). The procedure is applied to several images of a building and the results of the parameter estimation are evaluated. The quality of the estimated interior orientation parameters depends strongly on the orientation of the image relative to the object and the focal length of the camera. Furthermore, the availability and distribution of object lines and constraints plays an important role. This automatic procedure for the estimation of lens distortion and interior orientation parameters is well suited to application to historic imagery taken with an unknown camera, or for imagery taken with a camera with an unstable interior orientation. This holds true for wide-angle, three-point perspective (i.e. no object edges are parallel to the image plane) imagery of objects showing straight lines that can be assumed parallel and perpendicular.
Multilingualdatabase and crosslingual interrogation in a real internet application

Commissariat ~t rEnergie AtomiqueDirection de rlnformation Scientifique et TechniqueCEA/Saclay91191 Gif sur Yvette cedexFranceE_mail : fluhr@tabarly.saclay. cea, frAbstractThe EMIR European project demonstrated thefeasibility of a crosslingual interrogation of fulltextdatabases using a mono and a bilingual generalreformulation of the query.New developments have been done to acceptmultilingual databases even if there is more than onelanguage in the same documents.Problems of implementation of full-scale applicationsare discussed.
Effect of Continuous Glucose Monitoring on Hypoglycemia in Type 1 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE To assess the impact of continuous glucose monitoring on hypoglycemia in people with type 1 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS In this randomized, controlled, multicenter study, 120 children and adults on intensive therapy for type 1 diabetes and a screening level of glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) <7.5% were randomly assigned to a control group performing conventional home monitoring with a blood glucose meter and wearing a masked continuous glucose monitor every second week for five days or to a group with real-time continuous glucose monitoring. The primary outcome was the time spent in hypoglycemia (interstitial glucose concentration <63 mg/dL) over a period of 26 weeks. Analysis was by intention to treat for all randomized patients. RESULTS The time per day spent in hypoglycemia was significantly shorter in the continuous monitoring group than in the control group (mean ± SD 0.48 ± 0.57 and 0.97 ± 1.55 h/day, respectively; ratio of means 0.49; 95% CI 0.26–0.76; P = 0.03). HbA1c at 26 weeks was lower in the continuous monitoring group than in the control group (difference −0.27%; 95% CI −0.47 to −0.07; P = 0.008). Time spent in 70 to 180 mg/dL normoglycemia was significantly longer in the continuous glucose monitoring group compared with the control group (mean hours per day, 17.6 vs. 16.0, P = 0.009). CONCLUSIONS Continuous glucose monitoring was associated with reduced time spent in hypoglycemia and a concomitant decrease in HbA1c in children and adults with type 1 diabetes.
Fungicidal Monoclonal Antibody C7 Interferes with Iron Acquisition in Candida albicans

ABSTRACT We have developed a monoclonal antibody (MAb), C7, that reacts with the Als3p and enolase present in the Candida albicans cell wall and exerts three anti-Candida activities: candidacidal activity and inhibition of both adhesion and filamentation. To investigate the mode of action of MAb C7 on fungal viability, we examined changes in the genome-wide gene expression profile of C. albicans grown in the presence of a subinhibitory concentration of MAb C7 (12.5 μg/ml) by using microarrays. A total of 49 genes were found to be differentially expressed upon treatment with MAb C7. Of these, 28 were found to be upregulated and 21 were found to be downregulated. The categories of upregulated genes with the largest number of variations were those involved in iron uptake or related to iron homeostasis (42.86%), while the energy-related group accounted for 38.10% of the downregulated genes (8/21). Results were validated by real-time PCR. Since these effects resembled those found under iron-limited conditions, the activity of MAb C7 on C. albicans mutants with deletions in key genes implicated in the three iron acquisition systems described in this yeast was also assessed. Only mutants lacking the TPK1 gene and, to a lesser extent, the TPK2 gene were less sensitive to the candidacidal effect of MAb C7. FeCl3 or hemin at concentrations of ≥7.8 μM reversed the candidacidal effect of MAb C7 on C. albicans in a concentration-dependent manner. The results presented in this study provide evidence that the candidacidal effect of MAb C7 is related to the blockage of the reductive iron uptake pathway of C. albicans.
Spatially and Temporally Weighted Regression: A Novel Method to Produce Continuous Cloud-Free Landsat Imagery

Due to serious cloud contamination in optical satellite images, it is hard to acquire continuous cloud-free satellite observations, which limits the potential utilization of the available images and further data extraction and analysis. Thus, information reconstruction in cloud-contaminated images and the reprocessing of continuous cloud-free images are urgently needed for global change science. Many previous studies use one cloud-free reference image or multitemporal reference images to restore a target cloud-contaminated image; however, this paper is different and has developed a novel spatially and temporally weighted regression (STWR) model for cloud removal to produce continuous cloud-free Landsat images. The proposed method makes full utilization of cloud-free information from input Landsat scenes and employs a STWR model to optimally integrate complementary information from invariant similar pixels. Moreover, a prior modification term is added to minimize the biases derived from the spatially-weighted-regression-based prediction for each reference image. The results of the experimental tests with both simulated and actual Landsat series data show the proposed STWR can yield visually and quantitatively plausible recovery results. Compared with other cloud removal methods, our method produces lower biases and more robust efficacy. This approach provides a complete framework for continuous cloud removal and has the potential to be used for other optical images and to be applied to the reprocessing of cloud-free remote sensing productions.
Excess Mortality Associated with Influenza Epidemics in Portugal, 1980 to 2004

Background Influenza epidemics have a substantial impact on human health, by increasing the mortality from pneumonia and influenza, respiratory and circulatory diseases, and all causes. This paper provides estimates of excess mortality rates associated with influenza virus circulation for 7 causes of death and 8 age groups in Portugal during the period of 1980–2004. Methodology/Principal Findings We compiled monthly mortality time series data by age for all-cause mortality, cerebrovascular diseases, ischemic heart diseases, diseases of the respiratory system, chronic respiratory diseases, pneumonia and influenza. We also used a control outcome, deaths from injuries. Age- and cause-specific baseline mortality was modelled by the ARIMA approach; excess deaths attributable to influenza were calculated by subtracting expected deaths from observed deaths during influenza epidemic periods. Influenza was associated with a seasonal average of 24.7 all-cause excess deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, approximately 90% of which were among seniors over 65 yrs. Excess mortality was 3–6 fold higher during seasons dominated by the A(H3N2) subtype than seasons dominated by A(H1N1)/B. High excess mortality impact was also seen in children under the age of four years. Seasonal excess mortality rates from all the studied causes of death were highly correlated with each other (Pearson correlation range, 0.65 to 0.95, P<0.001) and with seasonal rates of influenza-like-illness (ILI) among seniors over 65 years (Pearson correlation rho>0.64, P<0.05). By contrast, there was no correlation with excess mortality from injuries. Conclusions/Significance Our excess mortality approach is specific to influenza virus activity and produces influenza-related mortality rates for Portugal that are similar to those published for other countries. Our results indicate that all-cause excess mortality is a robust indicator of influenza burden in Portugal, and could be used to monitor the impact of influenza epidemics in this country. Additional studies are warranted to confirm these findings in other settings.
Enhanced Markov Chain Model and Throughput Analysis of the Slotted CSMA/CA for IEEE 802.15.4 Under Unsaturated Traffic Conditions

In this paper, we propose an analytical Markov chain model of the slotted carrier-sense multiple-access/collision-avoidance (CSMA/CA) protocol for IEEE 802.15. 4 under unsaturated traffic conditions. Our proposed Markov chain model reflects the characteristics of the IEEE 802.15. 4 medium-access control (MAC) protocol, such as a superframe structure, acknowledgements, and retransmissions with and without limit. We evaluate the throughput performance of the slotted CSMA/CA and verify the analytical model using simulation results.
Teachers’ Perceptions of Classroom Management Factors that Contribute to Stress and Likeliness to Seek Consultation from School Counselors

5 Review of the Literature 7 Teacher Stress 8 No Child Left Behind, (NCLB) 10 High Stakes Testing 10 Classroom Management 13 Lesson Planning and Curriculum Development 15 Students with IEPs 16 Test Anxiety Among Students 17 Student Behavior Problems 21 Mental Health Needs of Students 24 Drug Use Among Students 26 Teacher and School Counselor Relationship 28 Conclusion 30 Method 31 Purpose 31 Setting 31 Participants 32 Materials 32 Procedure 34 Results 34 Discussion 37 Overview 37 Interpretation of Findings 37 TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF STRESS FACTORS 4 Limitations 40 Implications for School Counselors 41 Recommendations for Future Research 42 Conclusion 43 References 44 Appendix A Tables 49 Appendix B – IRB Proposal 54 Appendix C – Letter of Consent 58 Appendix D – Research Study Survey 60 TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF STRESS FACTORS 5
Self-reported cardiovascular risk factors in immigrants and Swiss nationals.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the prevalence of self-reported cardiovascular risk factors differs between immigrants and Swiss nationals. DESIGN AND SAMPLE This study is a secondary data analysis of the Swiss Health Survey 2002, a cross-sectional survey. In total, 19,249 individuals living in Switzerland were included. MEASURES The prevalence of hypertension, high cholesterol level, smoking, diabetes, overweight, low fruit and vegetable intake, and physical inactivity were calculated for major immigrant groups and Swiss nationals. Demographic data were used to control for age and socioeconomic status. RESULTS Major immigrant groups were people from Italy, Germany, former Yugoslavia, Spain, Portugal, France, and Turkey. Compared with Swiss women, women from former Yugoslavia were more likely to have hypertension, and women from Germany were more likely to have high cholesterol levels. Women from Italy, former Yugoslavia, Spain, Portugal, and Turkey were more likely to show physical inactivity and (except Turkish women) to be overweight. Men from these countries (except Spanish men) were more likely to be overweight than Swiss men. CONCLUSIONS Differences exist in the prevalence of modifiable cardiovascular risk factors between Swiss nationals and many of the immigrant groups. Age and socioeconomic status could only partly explain the differences.
Prenatal Magnetic Resonance Imaging Diagnosis of Molar Tooth Sign at 17 to 18 Weeks of Gestation in Two Fetuses at Risk for Joubert Syndrome and Related Cerebellar Disorders

We report on the prenatal MRI diagnosis of Joubert syndrome and related cerebellar disorders (JSRD) in 2 unrelated fetuses at 17-18 weeks of gestation who were referred to us with history of siblings with JSRD and additional renal affection in the second case. Ultrasonography (US) showed non-specific cranial findings in both fetuses such as prominent cisterna magna and ventricular system as well as bilateral renal enlargement in the first case. MRI identified the molar tooth sign (MTS) and suggested a JSRD affection in both fetuses. The final suggested diagnosis for both cases was Joubert syndrome with intrafamilial variability in renal expression. This report describes the earliest prenatal detection of MTS. We include a discussion of the differential diagnosis of renal affection in conjunction with MTS and review the previously reported cases with prenatal MRI detection of MTS. The report emphasizes the role of MRI in the early specific prenatal diagnosis of JSRD through the recognition of MTS.
Work–Family Conflict and Organisationally Valued Outcomes: The Moderating Role of Decision Latitude in Five National Contexts

The moderating role of decision latitude on the relationship between work–family conflict and psychological strain was examined across five countries. It was hypothesised that decision latitude would moderate the relationship more strongly in the individualistic countries (the United States and Canada) than in the collectivistic countries (India, Indonesia, and South Korea). The results supported the hypotheses of this five-country-based cross-national investigation. The implications of the findings for theory and practice in the area of international and cross-cultural research on work and family conflicts in the organisational context are discussed.
Learning Disabilities and Special Education

For those enmeshed in the day-by-day problems of the field, the trees often obscure the forest. Those familiar with the career of James Gallagher know that he has not only managed to keep the forest in view but has created a vision of how it should grow and evolve. Thus, he was a clear choice for bringing an insider's perspective to the difficult task of critiquing the papers in this series. In offering his views, he begins by noting the consensus among respondents to the future survey with regard to four key problems: (a) the unsatisfactory nature of the status quo, (b) the heterogeneity among those labeled as LD, (c) the need for greater emphasis on differential treatment, and (d) concern over political factors shaping professional decisions. He then explores the classification problem, drawing implications for resolving the conflict between etiology and treatment and for improving research and training. Recognizing that naming problems and identifying possible solutions is not enough, Gallagher concludes his discussion with a five-step plan outlining specific actions that could be taken immediately to influence current public policy related to the differentiation and treatment of the different types of learning problems presently diagnosed as LD. Both his analysis and the call for immediate action underscore the current state of the field's development and directions for future advancement. —Howard S. Adelman and Linda Taylor, Guest Editors