Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Natal Dispersal and Recruitment of Two Bonelli's Eagles Aquila fasciata: a Four-Year Satellite Tracking Study

Abstract. To study natal dispersal and recruitment to the breeding population in Bonelli's Eagle, two nestlings were tagged with satellite transmitters in the Iberian Peninsula in 2002. Their monthly ranges and distances were computed and fitted to regression models to describe their general trend. One bird, a female, dispersed and settled rapidly in an area which she explored intensively during four years and which finally became her first breeding site. The natal dispersal distance was 441 km, and the bird cannot therefore be considered philopatric. The other bird, a male, alternated between long travelling episodes and settlement in particular areas, exploring different regions both distant from and close to his natal territory, but no breeding attempt could be confirmed after four years of tracking. The large distances we recorded confirm the potential for gene flow among populations but, in comparison with our results from previous studies, they suggest that Bonelli's Eagles may show high variation in their natal dispersal distances and use different dispersal strategies.
Skin irritation because of electrocardiograph lead in patients in intensive care unit

Dear Sirs, Patients in intensive care unit (ICU) are haemodynamically unstable. All of them are being monitored with advanced apparatus system. An important part of monitoring critically ill patients is cardiac monitoring; therefore, ICU nurses attach electrocardiograph (ECG) to the patient, usually in five points of the chest, using five chest leads. These leads include red, green, black, yellow and white which will be attached on right upper part, right lower part, left lower part, left upper part and sternum, respectively. Chest leads are not changed routinely and may stay attached to the patient’s skin for 2–3 days. In this article, we report that those parts of body, which are attached to chest leads are at risk for allergic skin reaction. A 67-year-old woman with intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) admitted to ICU was selected for this study. She was in ICU for 17 days. Her breathing was with
A genome‐wide scan for schizophrenia and psychosis susceptibility loci in families of Mexican and Central American ancestry

Schizophrenia is a complex psychiatric disorder, likely to be caused in part by multiple genes. In this study, linkage analyses were performed to identify chromosomal regions most likely to be associated with schizophrenia and psychosis in multiplex families of Mexican and Central American origin. Four hundred and fifty‐nine individuals from 99 families, containing at least two siblings with hospital diagnoses of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, were genotyped. Four hundred and four microsatellite markers were genotyped for all individuals and multipoint non‐parametric linkage analyses were performed using broad (any psychosis) and narrow (schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder) models. Under the broad model, three chromosomal regions (1pter‐p36, 5q35, and 18p11) exhibited evidence of linkage with non‐parametric lod (NPL) scores greater than 2.7 (equivalent to empirical P values of less than 0.001) with the peak multipoint NPL = 3.42 (empirical P value = 0.00003), meeting genomewide evidence for significant linkage in the 1pter‐p36 region. Under the narrow model, the same three loci showed (non‐significant) evidence of linkage. These linkage findings (1pter‐p36, 18p11, and 5q35) highlight where genes for psychosis and schizophrenia are most likely to be found in persons of Mexican and Central American ancestry, and correspond to recent linkages of schizophrenia or psychosis in other populations which were formed in part from emigrants from the Spanish empire of the 15th and 16th centuries. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Kalle Palomaki Title : Uncertainty measures for improving exemplarbased source separation Year : 2011 Version : Final

This work studies the use of observation uncertainty measures for improving the speech recognition performance of an exemplar-based source separation based front end. To generate the observation uncertainty estimates for the enhanced features, we propose the use of heuristic methods based on the sparse representation of the noisy signal in the exemplar-based source separation algorithm. The effectiveness of the proposed measures is evaluated in a large vocabulary noisy speech recognition task. The best proposed measure achieved relative error reductions up to 18 % over the baseline feature enhancement method without uncertainty measures.
The vesicular monoamine transporter 2 contains trafficking signals in both its N‐glycosylation and C‐terminal domains

The vesicular acetylcholine transporter (VAChT) and the vesicular monoamine transporter (VMAT) belong to the same transporter family that packages acetylcholine into synaptic vesicles (SVs) and biogenic amines into large dense core vesicles (LDCVs) and/or SVs, respectively. These transporters share similarities in sequence and structure with their N‐ and C‐terminal domains located in the cytoplasm. When expressed in PC12 cells, VMAT2 localizes to LDCV, whereas VAChT is found mainly on synaptic‐like microvesicles. Previous studies have shown that the cytoplasmic C‐terminal domain of VAChT contains signals targeting this transporter to SVs. However, the targeting signals for VMAT have not been completely elucidated. To identify signals targeting VMAT2 to LDCV, the subcellular localization of VMAT2–VAChT chimeras was analyzed in PC12 cells. Chimeras having either the N‐terminal region through transmembrane domain 2 of VMAT2 or the C‐terminal domain of VMAT2 do not traffic to LDCV efficiently. In contrast, chimeras having both of these regions, or the luminal glycosylated loop in conjunction with transmembrane domains 1 and 2 and the C‐terminal domain of VMAT2, traffic to LDCV. Treatment of PC12 cells with 1‐deoxymannojirimycin, a specific alpha‐mannosidase I inhibitor, causes VMAT2 to localize to synaptic‐like microvesicles. The results indicate that both mature N‐linked glycosylation and the C‐terminus are important for proper trafficking of VMAT2 and that the locations of trafficking signals in VMAT2 and VAChT are surprisingly different.
Tone Patterns in Chinese EFL Learners ’ Read Speech

This study employs a method in experimental phonetics to investigate the use of tones in 45 Chinese EFL learners’ read speech. The study is based on O’Connor & Arnold’s (1973) descriptions of tones of English, and takes the recorded spoken data of 8 English-speaking British university students as the norm for comparison. Findings of the study indicate that, so far as primary tones are concerned, most of the learners know how to use falling and rising tones to a satisfactory extent, but serious problems prevail in their use of level tones. Further, many learners could not express their attitudes and moods by using appropriate secondary tones. As many of the characteristics found in these learners have also been reported to exist in EFL learners of other cultural and ethnic backgrounds, the results of this study seem to confirm the belief that there exists an interlanguage intonation system. This study has important implications for how EFL learners should convey their intended meanings with the proper use of different tones, as well as for the teaching of intonation in L2 pedagogy.
Identification of Amino Acid Residues and Protein Kinases Involved in the Regulation of NFATc Subcellular Localization*

The subcellular localization of the transcription factor NFATc is tightly regulated by the calcium-regulated phosphatase calcineurin, which acts to directly dephosphorylate NFATc, causing its rapid translocation from the cytoplasm to the nucleus. The calcineurin-mediated nuclear localization of NFATc is opposed by poorly defined protein kinases that act either to directly antagonize nuclear import or, alternatively, to promote nuclear export. Here, we provide evidence that the cellular protein kinases JNK, ERK, p38, and CK2 (formerly casein kinase II) are involved in the regulation of NFATc subcellular localization. We show that JNK, ERK, and p38 physically associate with the NFATc N-terminal regulatory domain and can directly phosphorylate functionally important residues involved in regulating NFATc subcellular localization, namely Ser172 and the conserved NFATc Ser-Pro repeats. Moreover, we found that overexpression of JNK, ERK, or p38 is able to block ionomycin-induced NFATc nuclear translocation, whereas treatment of cells with both PD98059 and SB202190, which inhibit MAPK/SAPK signaling pathways, is sufficient to trigger NFATc nuclear localization. Finally, we show that CK2 also binds the N terminus of NFATc and phosphorylates functionally important amino acid residues, including a conserved amino acid motif located downstream of each of the NFATc Ser-Pro repeats that appears to be important for regulating NFATc nuclear export. Collectively, these studies identify functionally important amino acid residues and protein kinases involved in the regulation of NFATc subcellular localization.
Growth hormone improves height in patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis: 4-year data of a controlled study.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy and safety of growth hormone treatment in severely growth retarded children with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) receiving glucocorticoids. STUDY DESIGN Children with systemic and polyarticular idiopathic arthritis (22 F, 16 M) with a mean age of 10.1 years were enrolled in this controlled study. Eighteen patients (9 F, 9M; mean age, 10.5 years) received growth hormone in a dose of 0.20 to 0.33 mg/kg body weight per week for 4 years. Twenty patients (13 F, 7 M; mean age, 9.6 years) served as an untreated control group. RESULTS Mean improvement in height in the treated group was 1 SD, whereas the patients of the control group lost 0.7 SD. Disease activity markers correlated significantly with the mean growth velocity standard deviation score. In general, children with mild or moderate disease and lower comedication grew and responded better to growth hormone therapy than those with active disease. No adverse events were noted. CONCLUSION Our data suggest that long-term growth hormone therapy has a beneficial effect in children with severe forms of JIA. Further data are needed to confirm the efficacy and safety of growth hormone and its effect on final height.
Theory and practice of software engineering

For twenty years software has cost more than planned, has been completed late, and failed to achieve what it was intended to do. There exists gaps between theory, curriculum, and practice. I have been trying to fill in the gaps for 15 years. In 1985 I presented a paper that listed more than 20 activities that can improve the production of software. Some of these lack a theoretical justification for their empirical success. Many of the 20 activities are not part of the Computer Science curriculum. I focussed on Jackson Structured Programming(JSP), Jackson Software Development(JSD), and parts of the Structured analysis and Design Method developed in the UK Civil Service. In 1986 I defined Dynamic Analysis and Design(DAD) and argued for its inclusion in software engineering. I demonstrated DAD in 1987. In 1987 I proved that Data Directed Design is significantly more powerful than is commonly thought. This lead to unexplored regions of logic and language theory (1988--89). For example, <b>a small change in the model of context free grammars makes it possible for a BNF-like data dictionary to describe non-context-free languages. </b> In parallel I have studied the time it takes to access data on secondary storage and proved that the text book formulæ can be misleading (1988). For example <b>a binary search of <i>n</i> items held in a large contiguous file on a disk on a personal computer takes time of order to <i>n</i> and not <i>log(n)</i> to retrieve information. </b>
OTYPES ON MEMORY B CELLS ABSORPTION OF THE ANTISERUM

Studies using both human and murine lymphoid cells have established that the predominant immunoglobulin isotypes on the cell surface of B lymphocytes are IgM and IgD (1-6). Moreover, the majority of B cells express both isotypes simultaneously (2, 3, 79). A minority of B cells bear surface IgG (10, 11). Recently, several investigators have studied the immune function of primed (memory) B cells bearing the different isotypes. Mason (12) found that IgGbut not IgM-bearing cells in the thoracic duct lymph of rats carried immunological memory for the adoptive indirect plaque-forming response to the dinitrophenyl (DNP) hapten. Similar findings were reported by Okumura et al. (13) and Yuan et al.' for murine splenic memory B cells to DNP and sheep red blood cells, respectively. Other investigators have suggested that some memory B cells bear surface IgM. Strober (14) showed that small memory cells found in rat thoracic duct lymph express surface IgG, but that large memory cells present shortly after priming express surface IgM. Abney et al. (15) demonstrated that passaged memory B-cell clones which give rise to IgG2a antibody bear IgM receptors on their cell surface. Yuan et a12 have recently reported that cells giving rise to a secondary IgM response may bear little IgM as compared to cells giving rise to the primary IgM response.
Probabilistic bivariate modeling of harmonic current

Modeling modern nonlinear loads with varying current poses a significant challenge. While the traditional numeric models provide an adequate representation of stable loads, if a device or a group of devices operate at different modes with varying harmonic currents, a statistical approach is necessary to represent the extent and the shape of the variation. This paper provides an overview of probabilistic modeling methods for harmonic currents and presents a novel method for empirical nonparametric harmonic current modeling.
NMDA receptor subunit expression after combined prenatal and postnatal exposure to ethanol.

BACKGROUND The N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR), a subtype of glutamate receptor, is essential for normal neurodevelopment. The brain growth spurt, which is both prenatal and postnatal in the rat, is a time when the brain is especially sensitive to the effects of a teratogen, such as alcohol. Changes in NMDAR function after early perinatal exposure to ethanol (EtOH) may be related to alterations in the expression of secondary subunits. Thus, we investigated the expression of the NR1, NR2A, and NR2B subunits after combined prenatal and postnatal exposure to EtOH. METHODS A binge model was used to administer EtOH (5 g/kg) or isocaloric vehicle to pregnant female rats followed by EtOH (6.2 g/kg) or isocaloric control diet from postnatal days 4 through 9 via an artificial rearing method. Proteins from crude membrane homogenates isolated from cortex and hippocampus at postnatal day 10, 14, or 21 were separated in a standard Western blot procedure. RESULTS The expression of the NR2A subunit of EtOH-exposed pups showed a significant increase at postnatal day 10 in hippocampus compared with diet controls. No significant changes were seen for any other subunit in either region. CONCLUSIONS The up-regulation of NR2A during EtOH withdrawal is consistent with compensatory changes to prolonged inhibition of the NMDAR. These results indicate that postnatal exposure to ethanol produces distinct effects on the NMDAR, which may underlie deficits associated with alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder.
A Simple Two-Dimensional Location Embedding for Passive Infrared Motion-Sensing based Home Monitoring Applications

Pervasive computing based home-monitoring has attracted increasing interest over the past years, especially regarding applications in the growing population of older adults. Applications include safety, monitoring chronic conditions like dementia, or providing preventive information about changes in health and behavior. Commonly used components of such systems are inexpensive and low-power passive infrared motion sensing units, usually placed in distinct locations of an older adult’s apartment. To efficiently analyse the resulting data the majority of procedures expect the resulting sensor data to be encoded in a vector space. However, most common vector space encodings are based on orthogonal representations of the sensor locations and thus lead to loss of information as the sensors are placed in a 3D-space. In this work we introduce an embedding of sensor-locations in a 2D-space based on multidimensional scaling, without knowledge of the physical position of the sensors. We evaluate this embedding, using two different algorithms and compare it to commonly used baselines in different tasks. All evaluations are carried out on a real-world home-monitoring data-set.
First observations on the phylogeny of the families Gammaridae, Crangonyctidae, Melitidae, Niphargidae, Megaluropidae and Oedicerotidae (Amphipoda, Crustacea), using small subunit rDNA gene sequences

This study examines amphipod phylogeny based on small subunit (18S) rDNA sequence data. Complete sequences of 25 species representing six families were used to test the phylogenetic information content of this gene for reconstruction of amphipod phylogeny. The alignment proved to be informative for most of the studied taxa. The monophyly of the families Gammaridae, Crangonyctidae, Niphargidae and Oedicerotidae is supported. The Melitidae are not monophyletic in the reconstructed topologies, but weak molecular evidence for the monophyly of this group could be observed in spectra of supporting positions. A close relationship of Gammaridae + Melitidae or Gammaridae + Crangonyctidae is not supported, rather there are supporting positions for the incompatible sister-group relationship (Gammaridae + Niphargidae) and (Crangonyctidae + Niphargidae). The molecular evidence is in favour of the latter relationship. The evolution of cephalothoracic apodemes is discussed in the light of other phylogenetic hypotheses resulting from molecular data.
Deadbeat voltage mode control of a DC-DC boost converter

A control system for a DC-DC boost converter based on a deadbeat controller providing a finite duration transient in a small neighborhood of the equilibrium state is proposed. Deadbeat control is implemented by reducing a system matrix to the Frobenius form without transformation of state variables. A procedure to obtain deadbeat controller parameters for DC-DC boost converter is stated. Mathematical simulation of boost converter in startup mode validated the efficiency of the deadbeat controller.
Personal and Organizational Competencies Requisite for the Adoption and Implementation of Evidence-Based Healthcare

The recent white paper, The New NHSModern, Dependable (DOH, 1997), concluded that, seven years after the inauguration of the clinical effectiveness strategy, the adoption of research findings on clinical effectiveness remains patchy and unsystematic, leading to unacceptable variations in clinical practice. This white paper places emphasis on 'doing the right things, at the right time, for the right people, and doing them right first time'. This total quality approach embraces the delivery of evidence-based treatments, prompts access to care, fairness of access, quality of patient experience, and efficient administration to nationally formulated standards of quality. The white paper introduces the new National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE), which promotes clinicaland cost-effectiveness by drawing up new evidence-based clinical guidelines to be disseminated by a new, national email (DOH, 1998). The new Commission for Health Improvement has been established to support and oversee the quality of clinical governance and level of clinical services delivered within a national performance framework. Clinical governance and responsibility to
Calculation and Optimization of High-Temperature Superconducting Levitation by a Vector Potential Method

We have theoretically established and experimentally validated a vector potential method for calculating the magnetic forces of high-temperature superconductor (HTS) subject to nonuniform magnetic fields generated by a permanent-magnet guideway (PMG). The highlight of the proposed method beyond the traditional approaches is that we introduced an auxiliary variable to represent both the magnetic vector potential and the electric scalar potential, which makes the calculation of superconducting levitation in 2-D space very efficient. By using the time-step finite-element technique to perform the spatial and temporal discretizations, the proposed mathematical model was numerically implemented and validated in a comprehensive manner by the measured data as well as the calculated data with other method. Enabled by the efficiency and robustness of the proposed method, we further incorporated this method into a genetic algorithm, and developed an intelligent scheme for optimizing the HTS maglev transportation system to realize a cost-efficient design. Using the maglev system, with one HTS levitated over a Halbach-derived PMG as a representative, we finally carried out a set of optimization studies to understand how the working condition and geometrical and material characteristics of the HTS affect its achievable levitation capability at different constraints of the cross-sectional area of PMG.
Cigarette Smoke Increases Apoptosis in the Gastric Mucosa: Role of Epidermal Growth Factor

Background/Aims: Apoptosis is a common mechanism for the regulation of cell loss. It is associated with both tissue atrophy and metaplasia. Cigarette smoking has tremendous adverse effects on the stomach and also increases the risk of gastric cancer. This action may be through the change in apoptosis in the stomach. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of cigarette smoking on apoptosis in the gastric mucosa and the possible role of epidermal growth factor (EGF) in this action. Methods: Gastric blood flow was assessed by the laser Doppler technique. Serum and gastric mucosal EGF levels were measured by RIA. Gastric mucosal apoptosis was determined using TdT-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling (TUNEL). Results: Cigarette smoke exposure decreased serum EGF which was accompanied by a reduction in gastric blood flow. Meanwhile, gastric mucosal cell apoptosis was increased. Administration of EGF (20 μg/kg i.v.) before each cigarette smoke exposure reversed these actions. Removal of salivary glands induced similar effects on the gastric blood flow, apoptosis, and serum EGF level as with cigarette smoke exposure. Conclusion: A reduction in serum EGF was involved in the decrease in gastric blood flow and increase in gastric mucosal apoptosis caused by cigarette smoking.