Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phylogenetic approaches for studying diversification.

Estimating rates of speciation and extinction, and understanding how and why they vary over evolutionary time, geographical space and species groups, is a key to understanding how ecological and evolutionary processes generate biological diversity. Such inferences will increasingly benefit from phylogenetic approaches given the ever-accelerating rates of genetic sequencing. In the last few years, models designed to understand diversification from phylogenetic data have advanced significantly. Here, I review these approaches and what they have revealed about diversification in the natural world. I focus on key distinctions between different models, and I clarify the conclusions that can be drawn from each model. I identify promising areas for future research. A major challenge ahead is to develop models that more explicitly take into account ecology, in particular the interaction of species with each other and with their environment. This will not only improve our understanding of diversification; it will also present a new perspective to the use of phylogenies in community ecology, the science of interaction networks and conservation biology, and might shift the current focus in ecology on equilibrium biodiversity theories to non-equilibrium theories recognising the crucial role of history.
Pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of the new non-imidazole histamine H3 receptor antagonist 1-[3-(4-tert-butylphenoxy) propyl]piperidine in rats

Abstract 1. The aim of this study was to evaluate pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of novel histamine H3 receptor antagonist 1-[3-(4-tert-butylphenoxy)propyl]piperidine (compound DL76). 2. Following intravenous administration of DL76 at the dose of 3 mg/kg, pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated using non-compartmental analysis. The systemic serum clearance was 10.08 L/h/kg and the estimated blood clearance was 5.64 L/h/kg. The volume of distribution at steady state was 16.1 L/kg which was greater than total body water, terminal half-life and MRT equalled 1.41 h and 1.6 h, respectively. The two-compartment pharmacokinetic model with enterohepatic circulation was also successfully fitted to the experimental data. 3. After systemic administration, DL76 was rapidly distributed into all organs studied (liver, kidney, brain, and lung). The highest AUC of DL76 was observed in lungs followed by brain, where the exposure to the investigated compound expressed as AUC was almost 30 times higher than in serum. 4. Bioavailability, calculated based on the area-under-the-concentration–time curve extrapolated to infinity after intravenous and intragastric administration of the dose 3 mg/kg, equalled 60.9%.
A design scheme of model reference adaptive control system with using a smooth parameter projection adaptive law

In a practical adaptive control, the adaptive law is often designed so that the adjustable parameter in the adaptive controller is constrained into a specified convex set from the viewpoint of the realization of adaptive controller and the stability of adaptive loop. Such a constraint can be accomplished with an adaptive law with some projection function [l]-[5], [8]-[ll]. Particularly, the smooth projection algorithm [8]-[ll] is suitable for the adaptive control based on the dynamic certainty equivalent (DyCE) principle, the adaptive backstepping control and so on. Unfortunately, the smooth projection algorithm [8]-[ll] cannot be applied to the convex set except for hyper-rectangle one. We have investigated several methods [12], [13] in order to solve the problem. Especially, we indicated that the adaptive law with the desired projection function can be designed and it can be realized as a direct integral law without using intermediate variables when the convex set consists of polyhedron based on hyper-planes whose number is less than the number of adjustable parameters or equal to it. In this paper, we show that new two schemes of the high order tuners in model reference adaptive control system based on DyCE principle which can be constrained to the generality convex set of hyper-planes rather than the hyper-rectangle. The effectiveness of the adaptive law proposed here is verified by the stability analysis and simple numerical simulations.
Inadequate intakes of dietary zinc among pregnant women from subsistence households in Sidama, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract Objective To assess the prevalence of zinc inadequacy based on dietary intakes and plasma zinc concentrations and, simultaneously, the prevalence of inadequate intakes of energy, protein, calcium and iron. Design A cross-sectional study of a convenience sample of subsistence farming households in Sidama, Southern Ethiopia. Subjects Dietary intakes were calculated from 1-day weighed food records and 40 repeats from 99 pregnant women in the third trimester using analysed values of major staple foods for zinc, iron, calcium and phytate. The distribution of observed intakes was adjusted for usual intakes and the prevalence of inadequacy estimated using the estimated average requirement (EAR) cutpoint method. Prevalence of inadequacy for zinc, protein and iron intakes were compared with those based on biochemical measures. Results Prevalence of zinc inadequacy was very high: 99% for US FNB EAR and 100% for IZiNCG EAR compared to 72% based on low plasma zinc concentrations. Corresponding prevalence estimates for iron were much lower: 4% for inadequate intakes based on US FNB EAR vs. 8.7% for iron deficiency anaemia (haemoglobin < 110 g l−1; ferritin < 12 μg l−1) and 32.3% for low storage iron. Prevalence of inadequacy for protein was 100% for adjusted intakes and 91% for serum albumin < 32 g l−1. For calcium, 74% were at risk for inadequate intakes. Conclusion The high prevalence of inadequate intakes of zinc and protein was reasonably consistent with those based on biochemical measures. Such dietary deficits could be overcome by regular consumption of cellular animal protein. In contrast, both dietary and biochemical measures of iron inadequacy were low.
Legislative Term Limits and Voter Turnout

According to reformers, legislative term limits should increase voter turnout by enhancing electoral competitiveness for legislative seats. However, this claim has been largely untested. The only existing study of the effect of legislative term limits on voter turnout, to date, finds that turnout in California did not increase after the imposition of term limits and may have decreased turnout. Yet, it is unclear whether this result generalizes to other states. This study employs a comparative state analysis of both aggregate turnout and district-level turnout rates in state legislative elections. We find that term limits significantly increase voting rates in state legislative elections.
Dose-Response Effects of Exercise Duration and Recovery on Cognitive Functioning

We examined the effects of different acute exercise durations and recovery periods on cognitive function in a counterbalanced, cross-over randomized controlled experiment. We placed 352 participants, aged 18 to 35 years into one of 16 experimental groups. Each participant visited the laboratory twice, separated by a 1-week washout period. Either Visit 1 or 2 consisted of an acute bout of moderate-intensity treadmill exercise (10, 20, 30, 45, or 60 minutes) followed by a period of rest (5, 15, or 30 minutes) before taking a set of five cognitive tests; the other visit consisted only of completing the cognitive tests (no exercise). Cognitive tests sampled multiple cognitive parameters, including reasoning, concentration, memory, attention, and planning. We found that a short recovery period (i.e., 5 minutes) may have a less favorable effect on planning ability but may be beneficial for memory. In addition, for various exercise durations and recovery periods, a Group × Time × Resting (nonexercise) A cognitive interaction effect was observed such that for both memory and inhibitory cognitive ability, acute exercise (vs. no exercise) had an enhancement effect for those with lower resting cognitive functioning. The length of the acute exercise recovery period and resting cognitive ability most influenced the association between exercise and cognitive function.
A Monolithic Digital Ripple-Based Adaptive-Off-Time DC-DC Converter With a Digital Inductor Current Sensor

A ripple-based digital controller requires inductor current ripple as feedback signals and analog RC inductor current sensors can be used for sensing the ripple. However, the passive RC components are bulky to integrate on-chip and the digital controller cannot use the analog ripple for the control purpose unless extra ADCs are available to quantize the signal. Therefore, a digital inductor current sensor is presented in this paper for obtaining the ripple in the digital domain. As compared to the existing designs, the digital inductor current sensor does not require extra ADCs or knowledge of the inductor DCR. A ripple-based digital controller is designed to demonstrate how the digital sensor can be utilized. A digital frequency-lock-loop is also incorporated into the digital controller to alleviate the problem of variable switching-frequency that is commonly found in the ripple-based control scheme. Both the digital sensor and controller are fabricated in UMC 0.13 μm digital CMOS process with a small chip area of 220 μm×220 μm. Measurements results show that a 2 MHz (max. ±6.5% in variation) buck converter achieves load-transient responses of about 5 μs by using the digital controller. The peak efficiency is 91% at a nominal load current of 100 mA.
Reptilian Reovirus Utilizes a Small Type III Protein with an External Myristylated Amino Terminus To Mediate Cell-Cell Fusion

ABSTRACT Reptilian reovirus is one of a limited number of nonenveloped viruses that are capable of inducing cell-cell fusion. A small, hydrophobic, basic, 125-amino-acid fusion protein encoded by the first open reading frame of a bicistronic viral mRNA is responsible for this fusion activity. Sequence comparisons to previously characterized reovirus fusion proteins indicated that p14 represents a new member of the fusion-associated small transmembrane (FAST) protein family. Topological analysis revealed that p14 is a representative of a minor subset of integral membrane proteins, the type III proteins Nexoplasmic/Ccytoplasmic (Nexo/Ccyt), that lack a cleavable signal sequence and use an internal reverse signal-anchor sequence to direct membrane insertion and protein topology. This topology results in the unexpected, cotranslational translocation of the essential myristylated N-terminal domain of p14 across the cell membrane. The topology and structural motifs present in this novel reovirus membrane fusion protein further accentuate the diversity and unusual properties of the FAST protein family and clearly indicate that the FAST proteins represent a third distinct class of viral membrane fusion proteins.
School performance from primary education in the adolescent offspring of parents with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder– a national, register-based study

Abstract Background Schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BP) are causes of severe disability worldwide and parents’ severe mental illness (SMI) is associated with childhood adversity, and socio-emotional and cognitive problems in children. Yet, how parental BP and SZ affect educational attainment in offspring is still unclear. Method We included all children (N = 684.248) born and living in Denmark between 1986 and 1996 and their parents. Our follow-up lasted from 1986 until children's graduation in 2014. The main outcome variable was their school grades following their primary education. School outcomes were divided into four categories: not graduated, low-grade point average (GPA), medium GPA and high GPA. We then performed a multiple logistic regression with medium GPA as the reference category, with the children of parents without SZ or BP as the reference group. Results Children of parents with SZ faced higher odds than their peers of not graduating primary education (OR 2.6), along with low GPA (odds ratios (OR) 1.6) and lower odds for a high GPA (OR 0.7). Moreover, it was the children of mothers rather than fathers with BP who had higher odds of not graduating primary education (OR 1.6). Lastly, child placement was associated with lower grades and lower graduation rates, and outcomes for children of parents with SMI were favorable compared with other children placed in care. Conclusion For children, parental SZ is associated with lower grades and lower chances for graduating primary education. In contrast, the children of parents with BP were indistinguishable from the reference group regarding school grades. This signifies that specificity of parental severe mental illness is important in relation to educational achievement of children.
A coin as a tracheal foreign body for 30 years

Abstract The authors describe an unusual case of a primary chondroid chordoma arising from the base of petrous temporal bone. The patient, a young male, presented with a left sided jugular foramen syndrome. The CT findings of a tumour arising from the base of the left petrous temporal bone were confirmed at infratemporal exploration. The clinical and histopathological and immunohistochemical differences between classical (typical) chordoma and its chondroid variant are highlighted. The rarity of primary chordomas at this site is stressed.
Internationalization and firm performance in Chindia countries: a meta-analytic review

For more than four decades, researchers have examined theoretically and empirically the relationship between internationalization and firm performance. While existing studies have provided important contributions, the stream of research still lacks consistency due to ambiguous findings on the internationalization-firm performance relationship. Moreover, previous research has often been limited to developed countries. The present study focuses on the emerging Chindia countries and determines the direction and the strength of the internationalization-firm performance relationship. Additionally, we have identified moderators of the relationship. Drawing on 21 studies, based on 9026 firms, we utilize a meta-analytic review to assess our hypotheses. Our results show that there is a significant and positive internationalization-firm performance relationship in Chindia countries. The effect of internationalization in India and China does not significantly differ. Moreover, we find that the effect of internationalization is significantly stronger in the United States as compared to the Chindia countries. The time period of data collection did not play an important role as a moderator. The present study contributes to the International Business literature by examining how and to which extent internationalization influences firm performance and offers implications for theory and practice as well as recommendations for future research.
An embedded controller for a 7-degree of freedom prosthetic arm

We present results from an embedded real-time hardware system capable of decoding surface myoelectric signals (sMES) to control a seven degree of freedom upper limb prosthesis. This is one of the first hardware implementations of sMES decoding algorithms and the most advanced controller to-date. We compare decoding results from the device to simulation results from a real-time PC-based operating system. Performance of both systems is shown to be similar, with decoding accuracy greater than 90% for the floating point software simulation and 80% for fixed point hardware and software implementations.
Evaluation of Glycomic Pro fi ling as a Diagnostic Biomarker for Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

Background: Prior studies suggested that glycans were differentially expressed in patients with ovarian cancer and controls.Wehypothesized that glycan-basedbiomarkersmight serve as adiagnostic test for ovarian cancer and evaluated the ability of glycans to distinguish ovarian cancer cases from matched controls. Methods: Serum samples were obtained from the tissue-banking repository of the Gynecologic Oncology Group, and included healthy female controls (n1⁄4 100), womendiagnosedwith lowmalignant potential (LMP) tumors (n1⁄4 52), and epithelial ovarian cancers (EOC) cases (n1⁄4 147). Cases and controls werematched on age at enrollment within 5 years. Serum samples were analyzed by glycomics analysis to detect abundance differences in glycan expression levels. A two-stage procedure was carried out for biomarker discovery and validation. Candidate classifiers of glycans that separated cases from controls were developed using a training set in the discovery phase and the classification performance of the candidate classifiers was assessed using independent test samples that were not used in discovery. Results: The patterns of glycans showed discriminatory power for distinguishing EOC and LMP cases from controls. Candidate glycan-based biomarkers developed on a training set (sensitivity, 86% and specificity, 95.8% for distinguishing EOC from controls through leave-one-out cross-validation) confirmed their potential use as a detection test using an independent test set (sensitivity, 70% and specificity, 86.5%). Conclusion: Formal investigations of glycan biomarkers that distinguish cases and controls show great promise for an ovarian cancer diagnostic test. Further validation of a glycan-based test for detection of ovarian cancer is warranted. Impact:An emerging diagnostic test based on the knowledge gained from understanding the glycobiology should lead to an assay that improves sensitivity and specificity and allows for early detection of ovarian cancer. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 1–11. 2014 AACR.
A Randomized, Controlled Trial of the Effectiveness of an Early-Intervention Program in Reducing Parenting Stress After Preterm Birth

BACKGROUND. Preterm birth has been associated with increased parenting stress in early infancy, and some reports have found this to be a risk factor for later behavioral problems. There are, however, few studies and conflicting results. Information about the fathers is scarce. OBJECTIVES. Our goal was to study the effects of an early-intervention program on parenting stress after a preterm birth until 1 year corrected age. METHODS. A randomized, controlled trial was conducted including infants with a birth weight <2000 g treated at the University Hospital of North Norway Trust, which serves the 2 northern-most counties in Norway, to examine the effects of a modified version of the Mother-Infant Transaction Program on parenting stress measured by the Parenting Stress Index. A term control group was also recruited. The Parenting Stress Index was administered to the mothers at 6 and 12 months’ corrected age and to the fathers at 12 months’ corrected age. The intervention consisted of 8 sessions shortly before discharge and 4 home visits by specially trained nurses focusing on the infant’s unique characteristics, temperament, and developmental potential and the interaction between the infant and the parents. RESULTS. Seventy-one infants were included in the preterm intervention group, and 69 were included in the preterm control group. The preterm groups were well balanced. Seventy-four infants were included in the term control group. Compared with the preterm controls, both the mothers and fathers in the preterm intervention group reported significant lower scores in child domain, parent domain, and total stress on all occasions except the mother-reported child domain at 12 months. These differences were not related to birth weight or gestational age. The level of stress among the preterm intervention group was comparable to their term peers. Both parents in the intervention group reported consistently lower scores within the distractibility/hyperactivity, reinforces parents, competence, and attachment subscales compared with the preterm control group. There were no differences in mean summary stress scores between the mothers and fathers in the 2 preterm groups at 12 months, but the intraclass correlation coefficient was higher in the intervention group. CONCLUSIONS. This early-intervention program reduces parenting stress among both mothers and fathers of preterm infants to a level comparable to their term peers. We are now studying whether this will result in long-term beneficial effects.
A Robust Ratio-Threshold Technique to Mitigate Tone and Partial Band Jamming in Coded MFSK Systems

It is well known [Refs 1, 2] that a tone or partial-band noise jammer can so choose his jamming strategy as to cause the bit error rate of a frequency-hopped MFSK transmission system, to be an inverse linear function of Eb/No = (W/R)/(J/S), where W is the total available bandwidth available to the communicator, R is the bit rate and J/S is the jammer-to-signal power margin. This situation can be greatly improved by the use of coding, but with hard decisions, performance is still significantly worse than in additive Gaussian noise, unless sufficient time diversity (hops/bit) are employed to thwart such jammers - but at a cost in performance due to coherence loss. This paper investigates use of a simple robust technique which generates a "quality" bit based on the ratio of the maximum filter output to the second largest filter output. This improves coded system performance by as much as 6 dB for a tone jammer and makes lower redundancy (time diversity) more desirable. Performance is determined for both tone and partial band noise jamming and the two are shown to be almost equal and only slightly worse than for full-band Gaussian noise in a coded system.
E-government and transformation of service delivery in developing countries

Purpose Since 2009, e-government has been high on governmental agenda in Bangladesh. Seen as a vehicle for improving governance and service delivery, it is also presented as a key to fighting poverty and achieving the millennium development goals. Thus, the goals of e-government remain broad and ambitious. Can a developing country such as Bangladesh realize its e-government vision? The purpose of this paper is to explore this and other related questions seeking to draw lessons that the Bangladesh experience may offer. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws primarily on secondary information, complemented by primary data gathered from various sources. In addition to an extensive review of secondary sources, necessary information was derived from websites of relevant government departments/agencies and through interviews and conversations with selected government officials having intimate knowledge on e-government projects at the field and local levels. Findings The paper demonstrates the ways in which various e-initiatives have transformed traditional administrative systems and practices, notwithstanding the nation’s limited overall e-development. It also shows how e-innovations have helped tackle some complex challenges, thereby adding to convenience and benefits to service users. A major conclusion of the paper is that although e-government is yet to make a breakthrough in governance and service delivery, it has set the wheels of change in motion. Practical implications E-government must be seen as a long term project, it must attract high-level political support and it requires fruitful collaboration between the public, private and non-governmental actors. Originality/value This paper adds to the limited knowledge in the field. Lessons learned from the Bangladesh experience have much relevance to other developing countries with similar socioeconomic circumstances. The policymakers and practitioners are expected to benefit from the insights of the paper.