Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The genetics of primary and secondary sexual character trade‐offs in a horned beetle

When structures compete for shared resources, this may lead to acquisition and allocation trade‐offs so that the enlargement of one structure occurs at the expense of another. Among the studies of morphological trade‐offs, their importance has been demonstrated primarily through experimental manipulations and comparative analyses. Relatively, a few studies have investigated the underlying genetic basis of phenotypic patterns. Here, we use a half‐sibling breeding design to determine the genetic underpinnings of the phenotypic trade‐off between head horns and the male copulatory organ or aedeagus that has been found in the dung beetle Onthophagus taurus. Instead of the predicted negative genetic covariance among characters that trade‐off, we find positive genetic covariance between absolute horn and aedeagus length and zero genetic covariance between relative horn and aedeagus length. Therefore, although the genetic covariance between absolute horn and aedeagus length would constrain the independent evolution of primary and secondary sexual characters in this population, there was no evidence of a trade‐off. We discuss alternative hypotheses for the observed patterns of genetic correlation between traits that compete for resources and the implications that these have for selection and the evolution of such traits.
Crystal structure of the β-finger domain of Prp8 reveals analogy to ribosomal proteins

Prp8 stands out among hundreds of splicing factors as a key regulator of spliceosome activation and a potential cofactor of the splicing reaction. We present here the crystal structure of a 274-residue domain (residues 1,822–2,095) near the C terminus of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Prp8. The most striking feature of this domain is a β-hairpin finger protruding out of the protein (hence, this domain will be referred to as the β-finger domain), resembling many globular ribosomal proteins with protruding extensions. Mutations throughout the β-finger change the conformational equilibrium between the first and the second catalytic step. Mutations at the base of the β-finger affect U4/U6 unwinding-mediated spliceosome activation. Prp8 may insert its β-finger into the first-step complex (U2/U5/U6/pre-mRNA) or U4/U6.U5 tri-snRNP and stabilize these complexes. Mutations on the β-finger likely alter these interactions, leading to the observed mutant phenotypes. Our results suggest a possible mechanism of how Prp8 regulates spliceosome activation. These results also demonstrate an analogy between a spliceosomal protein and ribosomal proteins that insert extensions into folded rRNAs and stabilize the ribosome.
Finding Exoplanets Orbiting Young Active Stars. I. Technique

Stellar activity, such as starspots, can induce radial velocity (RV) variations that can mask or even mimic the RV signature of orbiting exoplanets. For this reason RV exoplanet surveys have been unsuccessful when searching for planets around young, active stars and are therefore failing to explore an important regime which can help to reveal how planets form and migrate. This paper describes a new technique to remove spot signatures from the stellar line-profiles of moderately rotating, active stars (vsini ranging from 10 to 50 kms 1 ). By doing so it allows planetary RV signals to be uncovered. We used simulated models of a G5V type star with differing dark spots on its surface along with archive data of the known active star HD49933 to validate our method. The results showed that starspots could be effectively cleaned from the line-profiles so that the stellar RV jitter was reduced by more than 80%. Applying this procedure to the same models and HD49933 data, but with fake planets injected, enabled the effective removal of starspots so that Jupiter mass planets on short orbital periods were successfully recovered. These results show that this approach can be useful in the search for hot-Jupiter planets that orbit around young, active stars with a vsini of � 10 - 50 kms 1 .
A method to quantitatively evaluate changes in tremor during deep brain stimulation surgery

Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery is used increasingly as a symptomatic treatment for patients with movement related neuro-degenerative disorders. However, the method of intraoperative symptom evaluation is subjective. This paper proposes a method to quantitatively evaluate tremor by measuring the acceleration of the patient's wrist during the surgery. The results of applying the method to 2 patients suggest that the acceleration measurements are very sensitive to the change in the tremor and that they can be used to identify clinically effective stimulation amplitudes. By collecting acceleration data from DBS surgeries for many patients, we hope to add more knowledge to the mechanisms of deep brain stimulation.
Variation of xylem vessel diameters across a climate gradient: insight from a reciprocal transplant experiment with a widespread boreal tree

Summary 1. Xylem vessel diameters represent an important plant hydraulic trait to ensure sufficient water supply from the roots to the leaves. The ability to adjust the hydraulic pathway to environmental cues is key in order to satisfy transpirational demands and maximize growth and survival. 2. We evaluated the variability of vessel diameters in trembling aspen in a reciprocal transplant experiment. We tested six provenances from three ecological regions of North America planted at four test sites in western Canada. All test sites were established at the same time with the same provenances arranged in a randomized complete block design. 3. Vessel diameter showed a strong interaction of population and test site suggesting a high degree of phenotypic plasticity in this trait. Gaussian kernel density estimates support plastic as well as genetic contributions in vessel diameter control trending from bimodal distributions at the most northern test site towards unimodal distributions at the warmest and mildest test site. 4. Furthermore, we used test site-specific climate data in form of a 2-year, 5-year and 10-year average of 21 directly and derived climatic variables and found that average site-specific vessel diameters correlated strongly with summer moisture availability. A previously found negative relationship with vessel diameter and tree height in central Alberta was also found at two other boreal test sites but reversed at a wetter and milder sub-boreal test site. 5. In summary, vessel diameters were highly plastic in response to different environments and varied with summer moisture availability. The variability of vessel diameter and tree height correlations suggests that vessel diameter alone cannot serve as a reliable proxy for long-term growth performance beyond boreal environments. Instead, selecting aspen populations with a high degree of plasticity in this trait appears to be the safest option for assisted migration and seed transfer programmes under climate change.
Fully Integrated AND and OR Optical Logic Gates

We propose two novel designs of compact, linear, and all-optical OR and AND logic gates based on photonic crystal architecture. The proposed devices are formed by the combination of the ring cavities and Y-shape line defect coupler placed between two waveguides. The performance of the proposed logic gates has been analyzed and investigated using finite difference time domain method. The suggested design for AND gate offers ON to OFF logic level contrast ratio of not less than 6 dB and the suggested design for OR gate offers transmitted power of not less than 0.5. On top of that, the proposed OR and AND logic gates can operate at bit rates of around 0.5 and 0.208 Tb/s, respectively. Further, the calculated fabrication tolerances of the suggested devices show that the rods radii of the ring cavities need to be controlled with no more than ±10% and ±3% fabrication errors for optical OR and AND gates, respectively. It is expected that such designs have the potential to be key components for future photonic integrated circuits due to their simplicity and small size.
Left–right asymmetric morphogenesis in the Xenopus digestive system

The morphogenetic mechanisms by which developing organs become left–right asymmetric entities are unknown. To investigate this issue, we compared the roles of the left and right sides of the Xenopus embryo during the development of anatomic asymmetries in the digestive system. Although both sides contribute equivalently to each of the individual digestive organs, during the initial looping of the primitive gut tube, the left side assumes concave topologies where the right side becomes convex. Of interest, the concave surfaces of the gut tube correlate with expression of the LR gene, Pitx2, and ectopic Pitx2 mRNA induces ectopic concavities in a localized manner. A morphometric comparison of the prospective concave and convex surfaces of the gut tube reveals striking disparities in their rate of elongation but no significant differences in cell proliferation. These results provide insight into the nature of symmetry‐breaking morphogenetic events during left–right asymmetric organ development. Developmental Dynamics 228:672–682, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Phytochemical and Pharmacological Investigations on Nymphoides indica Leaf Extracts

Nymphoides indica (L.) Kuntze (Menyanthaceae) is traditionally used in the Indian subcontinent. However, scientific data reporting its constituents are poor. This study aimed at evaluating its phytochemical constituents and various biological activities. Phytochemical investigations of the extracts and fractions resulted in the isolation of 5 lipophilic compounds, i.e. azelaic (nonanedioic) acid (1) and 4‐methyl‐heptanedioic acid (3), hexadecanoic (2) and stearic acid (5) and the fatty alcohol hexadecanol (4); 3 seco‐iridoids, i.e. 7‐epiexaltoside (6), 6″,7″‐dihydro‐7‐epiexaltoside (7) and menthiafolin (8); 3 flavonoids, i.e. 3,7‐di‐O‐methylquercetin‐4′‐O‐β‐glucoside (9), 3‐O‐methylquercetin‐7‐O‐β‐glucoside (10) and 3,7‐di‐O‐methylquercetin (11); scopoletin (12) and ferulic acid (13); and the monoterpenoids foliamenthoic acid (14) and 6,7‐dihydrofoliamenthoic acid methyl ester (15). Compounds 1–5 showed moderate antimicrobial activities, whereas compound 9 presented mild antiprotozoal activities against Trypanosoma brucei (IC50 8 μM), Leishmania infantum (IC50 32 μM) and Trypanosoma cruzi (IC50 30 μM). Antiglycation activity was shown by compounds 7 (IC50 0.36 mM), 10 (IC50 0.42 mM) and 15 (IC50 0.61 mM). Finally α‐glucosidase inhibition was shown by compounds 7, 9, 11 and 13–15. It could be concluded that N. indica leaf extracts possess mild to moderate antimicrobial, antiprotozoal, antioxidant and antidiabetic activities. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Pharmacokinetic Properties of Recombinant Factor VIII Compared with a Monoclonally Purified Concentrate (Hemofil® M)

Summary A recombinant FVIII preparation, Recombinate™, was compared with a high-purity plasma-derived concentrate, Hemofil® M, in 47 hemophilia A patients in a cross-over evaluation of pharmacokinetic properties. The recombinant material showed a significantly lower clearance, volume of distribution, and higher in vivo recovery, but a similar half-life to the plasma-based product. In a comparison with reported data from other standard concentrates, the recombinant preparation exhibited potentially better pharmacokinetic properties in that its clearance was slower and its half-life was longer. We conclude that the recombinant DNA method of preparation does not adversely affect the biological and pharmacological characteristics of the factor VIII molecule.
Landscape features impact connectivity between soil populations: a comparative study of gene flow in earthworms

Landscape features are known to alter the spatial genetic variation of aboveground organisms. Here, we tested the hypothesis that the genetic structure of belowground organisms also responds to landscape structure. Microsatellite markers were used to carry out a landscape genetic study of two endogeic earthworm species, Allolobophora chlorotica (N = 440, eight microsatellites) and Aporrectodea icterica (N = 519, seven microsatellites), in an agricultural landscape in the North of France, where landscape features were characterized with high accuracy. We found that habitat fragmentation impacted genetic variation of earthworm populations at the local scale. A significant relationship was observed between genetic diversity (He, Ar) and several landscape features in A. icterica populations and A. chlorotica. Moreover, a strong genetic differentiation between sites was observed in both species, with a low degree of genetic admixture and high Fst values. The landscape connectivity analysis at the regional scale, including isolation by distance, least‐cost path and cost‐weighted distance approaches, showed that genetic distances were linked to landscape connectivity in A. chlorotica. This indicates that the fragmentation of natural habitats has shaped their dispersal patterns and local effective population sizes. Landscape connectivity analysis confirmed that a priori favourable habitats such as grasslands may constitute dispersal corridors for these species.
Voltage balancing optimization of series-connected IGBTs in solid-state breaker by using driving signal adjustment technique

Hybrid or solid-state DC breakers offers new possibilities for development of a large scale high voltage direct current (HVDC) grid by simplifying the DC breaking process. Generally, series-connected insulate gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) were implemented in solid-state DC breaker to withstand the turn-off transient overvoltage across it. However, the IGBTs are expensive power semiconductor devices that are highly sensitive to transient overvoltage, thus their voltage balancing during the turn-off transition need to be carefully concerned. This paper investigates the voltage unbalancing factors of the series-connected IGBTs in a solid-state DC breakers first. Aiming at synchronizing the voltage overshoot amplitude of the series-connected IGBTs during the circuit breaking, an active gate drive circuit and its corresponding voltage balancing technique are proposed. It is shown in small-scale experiment that if the voltage overshoot deviation between series-connected IGBTs are effectively minimized.
When 3 D-Aided 2 D Face Recognition Meets Deep Learning : An extended UR 2 D for Pose-Invariant Face Recognition

Most of the face recognition works focus on specific modules or demonstrate a research idea. This paper presents a pose-invariant 3D-aided 2D face recognition system (UR2D) that is robust to pose variations as large as 90◦ by leveraging deep learning technology. The architecture and the interface of UR2D are described, and each module is introduced in detail. Extensive experiments are conducted on the UHDB31 and IJB-A, demonstrating that UR2D outperforms existing 2D face recognition systems such as VGG-Face, FaceNet, and a commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) by at least 9% on the UHDB31 dataset and 3% on the IJB-A dataset on average in face identification tasks. UR2D also achieves state-of-the-art performance of 85% on the IJB-A dataset by comparing the Rank-1 accuracy score from template matching. It fills a gap by providing a 3D-aided 2D face recognition system that has compatible results with 2D face recognition systems using deep learning techniques.
An innovative injection-locked frequency divider with transformer transconductance-boosted technique

An innovative injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD) with transformer transconductance (gm)-boosted technique is proposed in this paper. By using the gm-boosted technique to enhance the effective gm, the locking range of the ILFD can be further increased. The proposed ILFD was implemented in 0.18 µm CMOS process. The measured locking range is from 24.6 to 27 GHz, for a locking range of 2.4 GHz, without varactor tuning. The output power is higher than ±11 dBm, and the core DC power consumption is only 2 mW.
Androgen deprivation use with external beam radiation for prostate cancer: results from CaPSURE.

PURPOSE Recent data support the role of androgen deprivation in men undergoing external beam radiotherapy for prostate cancer. The benefits of neoadjuvant, concurrent or adjuvant treatment have been limited to men at intermediate and high risk. We examined the patterns and predictors of androgen deprivation in men undergoing external beam radiation therapy in CaPSURE. MATERIALS AND METHODS CaPSURE is an observational, longitudinal disease registry, from which 932 men met study inclusion criteria. Androgen deprivation was classified as neoadjuvant-within 9 months of radiation or adjuvant-from the start of radiation to 6 months after completion. Time trends in androgen deprivation as well factors associated with combined therapy were elucidated using multivariate analyses. RESULTS In this study 40%, 39% and 21% of men could be categorized into high, intermediate and low risk groups, respectively. Overall 42% and 33% of patients received neoadjuvant and adjuvant androgen deprivation therapy, respectively. Between 1997 and 2002 neoadjuvant hormone use increased significantly in all risk groups, including patients at low risk. On multivariate analyses only the year of diagnosis and clinical risk group were associated with receiving androgen deprivation with radiation. CONCLUSIONS A significant increase in combined androgen deprivation and external radiation was observed in the last decade in men with intermediate and high risk disease. Nevertheless, more widespread acceptance is necessary since a substantial minority continue to receive radiation alone. Many patients with low risk disease that is amenable to radiation monotherapy also receive androgen deprivation. No clinical or sociodemographic features predicted the use of androgen deprivation with external radiation.
Design of simulation framework for generic radiotherapy

A new project for advanced simulation technology in radiotherapy was launched on Oct. 2003 with funding of JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency) in Japan. The project aim is to develop an ample set of simulation package for radiotherapy based on Geant4 in collaboration between Geant4 developers and medical users, providing a framework and relevant components which can be shared in generic radiotherapy usages. In this paper, we describe the first circular of system design adopting a rigorous software process of object-oriented methodology. In the beginning, our attention is focused on collecting various use-cases for hadron therapy facilities in Japan. By careful analysis of use-cases we collected, we can demonstrate how it helps us break the total system down into several subsystems, and obtain required functional components for our object.
A Framework for Optimal Planning in Large Distribution Networks

Large scale distribution system planning is a relatively complex and reasonably difficult problem. This paper proposes the application of improved genetic algorithm (GA) for the optimal design of large scale distribution systems in order to provide optimal sizing and locating of the high and medium voltage (HV and MV) substations, as well as medium voltage (MV) feeders routing, using their corresponding fixed and variable costs associated with operational and optimization constraints. The novel approach presented in the paper solves hard satisfactory optimization problems with different constraints in large scale distribution networks. This paper presents a new concept based on loss characteristic matrix introduced for optimal locating of MV substations, followed by new methodology based on graph theory and GA for optimal locating of the HV substations and MV feeders routing in a real size distribution network. Minimum spanning tree algorithm is employed to generate set of feasible initial population. In the present article to reduce computational burden and avoid huge search space leading to infeasible solutions, special coding methods are generated for GA operators to solve optimal feeders routing. The proposed coding methods guarantee the validity of the solution during the progress of the genetic algorithm toward the global optimal solution. The developed GA-based software is tested in a real size large scale distribution system and the well satisfactory results are presented.
Automated image analysis of intra‐tumoral and peripheral endocrine organ vascular bed regression using ‘Fibrelength’ as a novel structural biomarker

The study of vascular modulation has received a great deal of attention in recent years as knowledge has increased around the role of angiogenesis within disease contexts such as cancer. Despite rapidly expanding insights into the molecular processes involved and the concomitant generation of a number of anticancer vascular modulating chemotherapeutics, techniques used in the measurement of structural vascular change have advanced more modestly, particularly with regard to the preclinical quantification of off‐target vascular regression within systemic, notably endocrine, blood vessels. Such changes translate into a number of major clinical side effects and there remains a need for improved preclinical screening and analysis. Here we present the generation of a novel structural biomarker, which can be incorporated into a number of contemporary image analysis platforms and used to compare tumour versus systemic host tissue vascularity. By contrasting the measurements obtained, the preclinical efficacy of vascular modulating chemotherapies can be evaluated in light of the predicted therapeutic window. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Accuracy improvement of real-poles allpass-based digital Hilbert transformers

In this work a very efficient approach to extend the frequency range over which the real-poles allpass-based digital Hilbert transformers (HT) phase difference is kept near constant and to reduce the deviation of the phase from 90o in a limited word-length environment is proposed. This approach is based on minimisation of the phase sensitivity of each individual first- and second-order allpass section in the cascade realisation of the two branches of the structure used, depending on their transfer function pole positions, including replacements of second-order-sections by two first-order low-sensitivity allpass sections. The effectiveness of the proposed design is experimentally verified and the HTs so obtained are very suitable for different telecommunication applications.
Segmenting Ultrasound B-Mode Images Using RiIG Distributions and Stochastic Optimization

In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm for delineating the endocardial wall from a human heart ultrasound scan. We assume that the gray levels in the ultrasound images are independent and identically distributed random variables with different Rician Inverse Gaussian (RiIG) distributions. Both synthetic and real clinical data will be used for testing the algorithm. Algorithm performance will be evaluated using the expert radiologist evaluation of a soft copy of an ultrasound scan during the scanning process and secondly, doctor’s conclusion after going through a printed copy of the same scan. Successful implementation of this algorithm should make it possible to differentiate normal from abnormal soft tissue and help disease identification, what stage the disease is in and how best to treat the patient. We hope that an automated system that uses this algorithm will be useful in public hospitals especially in Third World countries where problems such as shortage of skilled radiologists and shortage of ultrasound machines are common. These public hospitals are usually the first and last stop for most patients in these countries. Keywords—Endorcardial Wall, Rician Inverse Distributions, Segmentation, Ultrasound Images.