Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PYGMY SPERM WHALE (Kogia breviceps): Northern Gulf of Mexico Stock 1999

STOCK DEFINITION AND GEOGRAPHIC RANGE The pygmy sperm whale appears to be distributed worldwide in temperate to tropical waters (Caldwell and Caldwell 1989). Sightings of these animals in the northern Gulf of Mexico occur primarily along the continental shelf edge and over the deeper waters off the continental shelf (Mullin et al. 1991; Southeast Fisheries Science Center, SEFSC, unpublished data). Pygmy sperm whales and dwarf sperm whales (Kogia simus) are difficult to distinguish and sightings of either species are often categorized as Kogia sp. Sightings of this category were documented in all seasons during seasonal GulfCet aerial surveys of the northern Gulf of Mexico during 1993-1995 (Hansen et al. 1996). The difficulty in sighting pygmy and dwarf sperm whales may be exacerbated by their avoidance reaction towards ships, and change in behavior towards approaching survey aircraft (Würsig et al. 1998) In a recent study using hematological and stable-isotope data, Barros et al. (1998) speculated that dwarf sperm whales may have a more pelagic distribution than pygmy sperm whales, and/or dive deeper during feeding bouts. There is no information on stock differentiation.
Implicit associations between anxiety-related symptoms and catastrophic consequences in high anxiety sensitive individuals

Anxiety sensitivity refers to the fear of anxiety-related physical sensations arising from beliefs that these sensations have harmful consequences (Reiss & McNally, 1985). The present study examined whether individuals with high (vs. low) anxiety sensitivity show stronger implicit associations in memory between anxiety-related symptoms, as opposed to neutral body parts, and harmful, as compared to harmless, consequences. A total of 22 undergraduate students (14 F, 8 M) completed the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST; De Houwer, 2003). Results indicated that high anxiety sensitive individuals (n = 10) tended to implicitly associate harmful consequences with anxiety-related symptoms. Their performance was significantly faster on trials where target words related to anxiety symptoms were mapped on to the same response key as harmful consequences. No significant difference in performance was found for low anxiety sensitive individuals (n = 12) or when target words were body parts unlikely related to diseases. Between-group differences persisted after controlling for trait anxiety and history of panic attacks, but not when illness-related beliefs were introduced as a covariate. Identifying this implicit association bias provides additional empirical support for the concept of anxiety sensitivity.
Job Stress and Incivility

Uncivil behaviors are costly to organizations due to their resulting decrease in health, performance, and attendance among employees. The purpose of the present study is to examine whether job stress increases one’s tendency to display uncivil behaviors and whether psychological capital moderates this relationship. A total of 390 working adults completed a questionnaire assessing the level of stress at their current job, their level of psychological capital, and the extent to which they display uncivil behaviors at work. Results indicated that psychological capital buffers the effect of job stress on incivility.
Multi-dimensional aggregation for DNS monitoring

DNS is an essential service in the Internet as it allows to translate human language based domain names into IP addresses. DNS traffic reflects the user activities and behaviors. It is thus a helpful source of information in the context of large scale network monitoring. In particular, passive DNS monitoring garnered much interest for the security perspectives by highlighting the services the machines want to access. In this paper, we propose a new method for assessing the dynamics of the match between DNS names and IP subnetworks using an efficient aggregating scheme combined with relevant steadiness metrics. The evaluation relies on real data collected over several months and is able to detect anomalies related to malicious domains.
Markers of Dysglycaemia and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease in People without Diabetes: Reykjavik Prospective Study and Systematic Review

Background Associations between circulating markers of dysglycaemia and coronary heart disease (CHD) risk in people without diabetes have not been reliably characterised. We report new data from a prospective study and a systematic review to help quantify these associations. Methods and Findings Fasting and post-load glucose levels were measured in 18,569 participants in the population-based Reykjavik study, yielding 4,664 incident CHD outcomes during 23.5 y of mean follow-up. In people with no known history of diabetes at the baseline survey, the hazard ratio (HR) for CHD, adjusted for several conventional risk factors, was 2.37 (95% CI 1.79–3.14) in individuals with fasting glucose ≥7.0 mmol/l compared to those <7 mmol/l. At fasting glucose values below 7 mmol/l, adjusted HRs were 0.95 (0.89–1.01) per 1 mmol/l higher fasting glucose and 1.03 (1.01–1.05) per 1 mmol/l higher post-load glucose. HRs for CHD risk were generally modest and nonsignificant across tenths of glucose values below 7 mmol/l. We did a meta-analysis of 26 additional relevant prospective studies identified in a systematic review of Western cohort studies that recorded fasting glucose, post-load glucose, or glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) levels. In this combined analysis, in which participants with a self-reported history of diabetes and/or fasting blood glucose ≥7 mmol/l at baseline were excluded, relative risks for CHD, adjusted for several conventional risk factors, were: 1.06 (1.00–1.12) per 1 mmol/l higher fasting glucose (23 cohorts, 10,808 cases, 255,171 participants); 1.05 (1.03–1.07) per 1 mmol/l higher post-load glucose (15 cohorts, 12,652 cases, 102,382 participants); and 1.20 (1.10–1.31) per 1% higher HbA1c (9 cohorts, 1639 cases, 49,099 participants). Conclusions In the Reykjavik Study and a meta-analysis of other Western prospective studies, fasting and post-load glucose levels were modestly associated with CHD risk in people without diabetes. The meta-analysis suggested a somewhat stronger association between HbA1c levels and CHD risk. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary
Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase Inhibition Lowers Arterial Blood Pressure in Angiotensin II Hypertension

Epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) have antihypertensive properties and play a part in the maintenance of renal microvascular function. A novel approach to increase EET levels is to inhibit epoxide hydrolase enzymes that are responsible for conversion of biologically active EETs to dihydroxyeicosatrienoic acids (DHETs) that are void of effects on the preglomerular vasculature. We hypothesized that inhibition of soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) would lower blood pressure in angiotensin II (Ang II) hypertension. Rat renal cortical tissue was harvested and urine collected 2 weeks following implantation of an osmotic minipump containing Ang II (60 ng/min). Renal cortical sEH protein expression was significantly higher in Ang II hypertension compared with normotensive animals. Likewise, urinary 14,15-DHET levels were significantly increased in hypertensive compared with normotensive animals and averaged 8.1±1.3 and 2.7±1.1 ng/d; respectively. In additional experiments, the sEH inhibitor N-cyclohexyl-N-dodecyl urea (NCND; 3 mg/d) or vehicle (corn oil, 0.5 mL) was administered daily by intraperitoneal injection starting on day 10. Administration of NCND for 4 days lowered systolic blood pressure by 30 mm Hg in Ang II hypertensive animals, whereas the corn oil vehicle had no effect on blood pressure in normotensive or Ang II hypertensive animals. Measurement of blood pressure by indwelling arterial catheters in conscious animals with free movement in their cages confirmed that NCND had antihypertensive properties. Arterial blood pressure averaged 119±5 mm Hg in normotensive, 170±3 mm Hg in hypertensive and 149±10 mm Hg in NCND-treated, Ang II-infused animals. Administration of the potential metabolite of NCND, N-cyclohexylformamide to Ang II hypertensive rats did not lower the systolic blood pressure. These studies demonstrate that increased sEH expression in the Ang II hypertensive kidney leads to increased EET hydration. Moreover, sEH plays a role in the regulation of blood pressure, and inhibition of sEH during Ang II hypertension is antihypertensive.
A Critical Function for Ser-282 in Cardiac Myosin Binding Protein-C Phosphorylation and Cardiac Function

Rationale: Cardiac myosin-binding protein-C (cMyBP-C) phosphorylation at Ser-273, Ser-282, and Ser-302 regulates myocardial contractility. In vitro and in vivo experiments suggest the nonequivalence of these sites and the potential importance of Ser-282 phosphorylation in modulating the protein's overall phosphorylation and myocardial function. Objective: To determine whether complete cMyBP-C phosphorylation is dependent on Ser-282 phosphorylation and to define its role in myocardial function. We hypothesized that Ser-282 regulates Ser-302 phosphorylation and cardiac function during &bgr;-adrenergic stimulation. Methods and Results: Using recombinant human C1-M-C2 peptides in vitro, we determined that protein kinase A can phosphorylate Ser-273, Ser-282, and Ser-302. Protein kinase C can also phosphorylate Ser-273 and Ser-302. In contrast, Ca2+-calmodulin-activated kinase II targets Ser-302 but can also target Ser-282 at nonphysiological calcium concentrations. Strikingly, Ser-302 phosphorylation by Ca2+-calmodulin-activated kinase II was abolished by ablating the ability of Ser-282 to be phosphorylated via alanine substitution. To determine the functional roles of the sites in vivo, three transgenic lines, which expressed cMyBP-C containing either Ser-273-Ala-282-Ser-302 (cMyBP-CSAS), Ala-273-Asp-282-Ala-302 (cMyBP-CADA), or Asp-273-Ala-282-Asp-302 (cMyBP-CDAD), were generated. Mutant protein was completely substituted for endogenous cMyBP-C by breeding each mouse line into a cMyBP-C null (t/t) background. Serine-to-alanine substitutions were used to ablate the abilities of the residues to be phosphorylated, whereas serine-to-aspartate substitutions were used to mimic the charged state conferred by phosphorylation. Compared to control nontransgenic mice, as well as transgenic mice expressing wild-type cMyBP-C, the transgenic cMyBP-CSAS(t/t), cMyBP-CADA(t/t), and cMyBP-CDAD(t/t) mice showed no increases in morbidity and mortality and partially rescued the cMyBP-C(t/t) phenotype. The loss of cMyBP-C phosphorylation at Ser-282 led to an altered &bgr;-adrenergic response. In vivo hemodynamic studies revealed that contractility was unaffected but that cMyBP-CSAS(t/t) hearts showed decreased diastolic function at baseline. However, the normal increases in cardiac function (increased contractility/relaxation) as a result of infusion of &bgr;-agonist was significantly decreased in all of the mutants, suggesting that competency for phosphorylation at multiple sites in cMyBP-C is a prerequisite for normal &bgr;-adrenergic responsiveness. Conclusions: Ser-282 has a unique regulatory role in that its phosphorylation is critical for the subsequent phosphorylation of Ser-302. However, each residue plays a role in regulating the contractile response to &bgr;-agonist stimulation.
Patronage and Elections in U.S. States

Does control of patronage jobs significantly increase a political party's chances of winning elections in U.S. states? We employ a differences-in-differences design, exploiting the considerable variation in the dates that different states adopted civil service reforms. Our evidence suggests that political parties in U.S. states were able to use state-level patronage to increase the probability of maintaining control of state legislatures and statewide elective offices. We also find that an “entrenched” party, in power for a longer time, can use patronage more effectively. We consider several alternative hypotheses that might plausibly account for the patterns in the data, but find no evidence to support them.
Mining reusable software components from object-oriented source code of a set of similar software

One of the most important approaches that support software reuse is Component Based Software Engineering (CBSE). Nevertheless the lack of component libraries is one of the major obstacles to widely use CBSE in the industry. To help filling this need, many approaches have been proposed to identify components from existing object-oriented software. These approaches identify components from singular software. Therefore the reusability of these components may be limited. In this paper, we propose an approach to mine reusable components from a set of similar object-oriented software, which were developed in the same domain, ideally by the same developers. Our goal is to enhance the reusability of mined components compared to those mined from single software. In order to validate our approach, we have applied it onto two open source Java applications of different sizes; small and large-scale ones. The results show that the components mined from the analysis of similar software are more reusable than those which are mined from single ones.
Efficient processing of exploratory top-k joins

In this paper, we address the problem of discovering a ranked set of k distinct main objects combined with additional (accessory) objects that best fit the given preferences. This problem is challenging because it considers object combinations of variable size, where objects are combined only if the combination produces a higher score, and thus becomes more preferable to a user. In this way, users can explore overviews of combinations that are more suited to their preferences than single objects, without the need to explicitly specify which objects should be combined. We model this problem as a rank-join problem where each combination is represented by a set of tuples from different relations and we call the respective query eXploratory Top-k Join query. Existing approaches fall short to tackle this problem because they impose a fixed size of combinations, they do not distinguish on combinations based on the main objects or they do not take into account user preferences. We introduce a more efficient bounding scheme that can be used on an adaptation of the rank-join algorithm, which exploits some key properties of our problem and allows earlier termination of query processing. Our experimental evaluation demonstrates the efficiency of the proposed bounding technique.
African American, Black Caribbean, and Non-Hispanic White Feelings of Closeness Toward Other Racial and Ethnic Groups

This study examines African Americans’, Black Caribbeans’, and non-Hispanic Whites’ perceptions of closeness to other racial and ethnic groups. The study uses data from a national probability sample, the National Survey of American Life (N = 6,082), and provides the first investigation of this topic among Black Caribbeans. Study findings reveal both similarities and significant differences between African Americans and Black Caribbeans in their levels of closeness to other groups. African Americans and Black Caribbeans were similar in their levels of closeness to Whites, American Indians, and Asian Americans. African Americans felt significantly closer to Black people in the United States than did Black Caribbeans. Conversely, Black Caribbeans felt significantly closer than African Americans to Black people from the Caribbean, Spanish-speaking people, and Black people in Africa. Non-Hispanic Whites felt significantly closer to Asian Americans than did either African Americans or Black Caribbeans. These and other findings are discussed in detail and reaffirm the continued importance of race in American life and intergroup relations.
Fostering Web Intelligence by Semi-automatic OWL Ontology Refinement

In this paper, we propose a systematic, reasoner-aided approach to Web ontology acquisition and refinement. It complements methods for acquiring expressive ontology axioms from textual definitions with methodic knowledge exploration techniques based on formal concept analysis. We demonstrate the practical relevance of our approach by means of a real-world example.
AssesSeg - A Command Line Tool to Quantify Image Segmentation Quality: A Test Carried Out in Southern Spain from Satellite Imagery

This letter presents the capabilities of a command line tool created to assess the quality of segmented digital images. The executable source code, called AssesSeg, was written in Python 2.7 using open source libraries. AssesSeg (University of Almeria, Almeria, Spain; Politecnico di Bari, Bari, Italy) implements a modified version of the supervised discrepancy measure named Euclidean Distance 2 (ED2) and was tested on different satellite images (Sentinel-2, Landsat 8, and WorldView-2). The segmentation was applied to plastic covered greenhouse detection in the south of Spain (Almeria). AssesSeg outputs were utilized to find the best band combinations for the performed segmentations of the images and showed a clear positive correlation between segmentation accuracy and the quantity of available reference data. This demonstrates the importance of a high number of reference data in supervised segmentation accuracy assessment problems.
Conceptions of national identity in a globalised world: Antecedents and consequences

The emergence of nation states is a relatively recent phenomenon in human history. Yet its impact on everyday life is ubiquitous. The purpose of the present article is to synthesise research from several social science disciplines to identify similarities and differences between legal and structural definitions of nation states studied by political scientists and historians and psychological conceptions of nation states studied by social psychologists. Using a social psychological lens, we investigate how nation states as political institutions influence psychological conceptions of national identity and how these construals have unique effects on perceivers’ attitudes, behaviour, and inclusion of diverse ethnic groups within the nation. Four research questions guide this article. First, how do modern nation states define citizenship legally and to what extent do these definitions fit psychological conceptions of nationality that individuals report explicitly or implicitly? Second, to what extent do these implicit and explicit conceptions of national identity influence majority group members’ actions and decisions in both positive and negative directions? Third, what types of perceiver characteristics (e.g., national identification, political ideology, status, social dominance) influence attitudes, behaviour, and inclusion of ethnic minorities and immigrants? And finally, in what ways do conceptions of nationality impact the self-concept and well-being of ethnic minorities and immigrants within a nation? We summarise extant research that addresses each question and conclude by identifying unanswered questions and avenues for future work.
Performance Evaluation of Parallelizing Algorithm Using Spanning Tree for Stream-Based Computing

This paper proposes a detailed performance evaluation of an algorithm using spanning tree that automatically exploits the parallelism and determines an execution order of multiple kernel programs in distributed environment. In stream-based computing, efficient parallel execution requires careful scheduling of the invocation of the kernel programs. By mapping a kernel to a node and an I/O stream between kernels to an edge, the entire stream process can be treated as a spanning tree. The spanning tree, which allows feedback and feedforward edges, is effective for expressing dependencies that exist among kernels. In spanning tree, the nodes at the same depth do not have edges between them, and thus can be executed in parallel in the case parent nodes have been already executed. The series of the nodes can be executed in a pipelined manner. Thus, the proposed algorithm can extract both spatial and temporal parallelism. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, two applications have been developed and parallelized based on the proposed algorithm. The results show that the parallel execution using four nodes of a GPU cluster obtained 3.5 times speedup in 2D-FFT and 3.0 times speedup in LU decomposition, compared to the sequential execution.
Formalization and Preliminary Evaluation of a Pipeline for Text Extraction From Infographics

We propose a pipeline for text extraction from infographics that makes use of a novel combination of data mining and computer vision techniques. The pipeline defines a sequence of steps to identify characters, cluster them into text lines, determine their rotation angle, and apply state-of-the-art OCR to recognize the text. In this paper, we formally define the pipeline and present its current implementation. In addition, we have conducted preliminary evaluations over a data corpus of 121 manually annotated infographics from a broad range of illustration types such as bar charts, pie charts, and line charts, maps, and others. We assess the results of our text extraction pipeline by comparing it with two baselines. Finally, we sketch an outline for future work and possibilities for improving the pipeline.
Accepting Hybrid Networks of Evolutionary Processors with Special Topologies and Small Communication

Starting from the fact that complete Accepting Hybrid Networks of Evolutionary Processors allow much communication between the nodes and are far from network structures used in practice, we propose in this paper three network topologies that restrict the communication: star networks, ring networks, and grid networks. We show that ring-AHNEPs can simulate 2-tag systems, thus we deduce the existence of a universal ring-AHNEP. For star networks or grid networks, we show a more general result; that is, each recursively enumerable language can be accepted efficiently by a star- or grid-AHNEP. We also present bounds for the size of these star and grid networks. As a consequence we get that each recursively enumerable can be accepted by networks with at most 13 communication channels and by networks where each node communicates with at most three other nodes.
MicroRNA-101 Modulates Autophagy and Oligodendroglial Alpha-Synuclein Accumulation in Multiple System Atrophy

Synucleinopathies, neurodegenerative disorders with alpha-synuclein (α-syn) accumulation, are the second leading cause of neurodegeneration in the elderly, however no effective disease-modifying alternatives exist for these diseases. Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a fatal synucleinopathy characterized by the accumulation of toxic aggregates of α-syn within oligodendroglial cells, leading to demyelination and neurodegeneration, and the reduction of this accumulation might halt the fast progression of MSA. In this sense, the involvement of microRNAs (miRNAs) in synucleinopathies is yet poorly understood, and the potential of manipulating miRNA levels as a therapeutic tool is underexplored. In this study, we analyzed the levels of miRNAs that regulate the expression of autophagy genes in MSA cases, and investigated the mechanistic correlates of miRNA dysregulation in in vitro models of synucleinopathy. We found that microRNA-101 (miR-101) was significantly increased in the striatum of MSA patients, together with a reduction in the expression of its predicted target gene RAB5A. Overexpression of miR-101 in oligodendroglial cell cultures resulted in a significant increase in α-syn accumulation, along with autophagy deficits. Opposite results were observed upon expression of an antisense construct targeting miR-101. Stereotaxic delivery of a lentiviral construct expressing anti-miR-101 into the striatum of the MBP-α-syn transgenic (tg) mouse model of MSA resulted in reduced oligodendroglial α-syn accumulation and improved autophagy. These results suggest that miRNA dysregulation contributes to MSA pathology, with miR-101 alterations potentially mediating autophagy impairments. Therefore, therapies targeting miR-101 may represent promising approaches for MSA and related neuropathologies with autophagy dysfunction.