Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Early Childhood Education and Life-Cycle Health

This study forecasts the life-cycle treatment effects on health of a high-quality early childhood program. Our predictions combine microsimulation using nonexperimental data with experimental data from a midlife long-term follow-up. The follow-up incorporated a full epidemiological exam. The program mainly benefits males and significantly reduces the prevalence of heart disease, stroke, cancer, and mortality across the life-cycle. For men, we estimate an average reduction of 3.8 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). The reduction in DALYs is relatively small for women. The gain in quality-adjusted life years is almost enough to offset all of the costs associated with program implementation for males and half of program costs for women.
Power Prefixes Prioritization for Smarter BGP Reconvergence

BGP reconvergence events involving a large number of prefixes may result in the loss of large amounts of traffic. Based on the observation that a very small number of prefixes carries the vast majority of traffic, we propose Power Prefixes Prioritization (PPP) to ensure the routes of these popular BGP prefixes converge first. By doing so, we significantly reduce the amount of traffic lost during reconvergence events. To achieve this, PPP obtains an ordered list of popular prefixes through traffic inspection, and configures the resulting prefix rank in the BGP routers to prioritize the processing and advertisement of BGP routes. We model the benefits of PPP over traditional BGP processing in terms of traffic loss for both generic and a Zipf traffic distribution, and we consider the impact of sampling in the process of obtaining the prefix rank. Applying the mechanism to real traffic traces obtained from WIDE, we show that PPP reduces the amount of traffic lost by an order of magnitude, even when we configure it to use conservative sampling rates. We prototype our proposal in Quagga to show the feasibility of its implementation, and we observe similar traffic loss reduction. PPP can be deployed incrementally, as it is implemented purely as a change in the router-internal BGP processing behavior.
Photonic Entanglement Based on Nonlinear Metamaterials

Metamaterials consisting of deep subwavelength artificial “atoms” have been utilized to demonstrate a series of novel phenomena such as negative refraction and epsilon‐near‐zero. In recent times, metamaterials have been developed as an up‐and‐coming platform for quantum optics. Here the generation and modulation of photonic entanglement are investigated based on the parametric down conversion processes in metamaterials with considerable optical nonlinearity. Through flexible nanostructure design, the nonlinear photonic interaction in the metamaterial system can be effectively tailored. The distributions of optical parameters of the system are inhomogeneous, based on which the spatial properties of the generated photonic state can be steered as desired. The theoretical framework to describe this system is established based on the nonlinear Huygens–Fresnel principle, and a differential approach is utilized to deal with the intrinsic loss of the system. The generation of orbital angular momentum entangled states is actually considered as an illustration. This platform could be valuable for the practical applications of quantum information processing.
The level of microelements and heterogeneity of joint hypermobility as an endophenotype of undifferentiated connective tissue dysplasia

Objective — The aim of the work was to study serum concentrations of magnesium, copper, zinc, phosphorus and calcium in individuals with undifferentiated connective tissue dysplasia (uCTD) and joint hypermobility (JH) in an isolated and combined state. Material and methods — the concentrations of magnesium, copper, zinc, phosphorus and calcium were measured by the direct colorimetric method in 55 people with joint hypermobility and in 34 – without hypermobility. Results — There were no significant differences between serum concentrations of microelementsin groups with and without JH. In patients with mild and severe uCTD significant decrease in serum magnesium concentrations was noted (U=2.12, p=0.034 and U=3.7, p=0.012). In patients with isolated JH significant serum zinc concentrationdecrease was revealed compared with the control group (U=3.12, p=0.022). Serum magnesium concentrations were reduced in all patients with uCTD and JH; in the groups with isolated dysplasia and combined pathology, the differences reached the level of statistical significance (U=2.78, p=0.024 and U=3.2, p=0.018). Conclusion — The study revealed significant associations of a decrease in serum magnesium concentrations with the development of uCTD in an isolated and combined with JH state and decrease in serum zinc concentrations with the development of isolated JH.
Alterações hematológicas e histopatológicas em pacu, Piaractus mesopotamicus Holmberg, 1887 (Osteichthyes, Characidae),

This paper evaluated the haematological and glycaemic parameters in Piaractus mesopotamicus (Osteichthyes, Characidae) infected with Monogenea Anacanthorus penilabiatus Boeger, Husak & Martins, 1995 (Dactylogyridae) after treatment with 0.50 mg/L and 1.00 mg/L of copper sulphate (CuSO 4 ). The efficacy of the CuSO 4 was observed in the first day after administration but not after eight, fifteen or thirty days. The histopathological analyses showed hyperplasia of the epithelium and circulatory changes in the gills. In the first day after treatment significant changes (P th day. Fifteen days after 1.00 mg/L treatment, values of mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and special granulocitic cells (S.G.C.) percentage decreased. Nevertheless, increase of total leucocyte number was observed. Thirty days after treatment with 0.50 mg/L showed increased S.G. C. and treatment with 1.00 mg/L showed increased lymphocyte.
A Bridgeless AC/DC High Voltage Gain Converter With Three-Phase Modular Series-Output Connected Configuration for MVDC Grid Applications

In this article, a novel power factor correction, soft-switched, bridgeless ac–dc converter is presented for step-up voltage conversion in medium voltage dc grid applications. To reduce the number of conversion stages, the proposed bridgeless boost rectifier is integrated with isolated high-frequency step-up resonant converter with voltage multiplier modules to form a single-stage ac–dc step-up converter. Almost sinusoidal input currents with near unity power factor are achieved at the three-phase ac input side, while at the same time, the converter achieves a very high voltage gain at the output. The proposed converter is able to reduce the number of lossy diodes required for the front-end rectifier, and to achieve soft switching for all the Silicon Carbide (SiC) mosfets and SiC diodes, thus enhancing the converter efficiency. Simulation results on a 100-kW, 1-kVac/15-kVdc design, and experimental results on a laboratory scale proof-of-concept 2-kW, 250-Vac/4-kVdc medium voltage prototype are presented to verify with the proposed converter's performance.
Spatial and temporal patterns of land flatworm assemblages in Brazilian Araucaria forests

Araucaria forests are among the most threatened biomes of one of the world's 25 biodiversity hotspots, the south Brazilian Atlantic Rain Forest. This study was focused on flatworm community structure in three protected areas located on the eastern border of the Araucaria Plateau in south Brazil. We addressed three main questions: (1) How species-rich are Araucaria forests? (2) Are there any differences in the community structure within the three areas? (3) What is the distribution pattern of land flatworms in this type of forest? A total of 51 flatworm species in ten genera and two subfamilies were found. Non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis showed that the assemblage structure differed within the three areas. The abundance and richness varied in time, being affected by an interaction between season and areas. Araucaria forests on the eastern border of the Araucaria Plateau should be considered a hotspot of land planarian diversity, harboring an estimated 64 species. The high combined species richness in the protected areas studied emphasizes the importance of their preservation. Notwithstanding their close proximity, they are not redundant in maintaining regional biodiversity.
The microbiota in the development of colitis due to Clostridium difficile infection

One of the unexpected side effects of antibiotic treatment is the development of colitis. Ranging in severity from nuisance diarrhoea to fulminant pseudomembranous colitis leading to toxic megacolon and perforation, antibiotic-associated colitis is thought to arise from changes in the community structure of the indigenous gut microbiota. The most severe cases of antibiotic-associated colitis are generally due to infection with the toxin-producing bacterium Clostridium difficile. Owing to advances in the culture-independent analysis of complex microbial communities that were developed by researchers studying environmental bacterial consortia, we are now in the position to understand how antibiotics alter the indigenous gut microbiota and how these changes lead to susceptibility to C. difficile infection. In this review, we will summarize the early work investigating the interaction between C. difficile and the gut microbiota and highlight more recent studies using molecular microbial ecology techniques to study C. difficile infection humans and animal models of disease.
Optical Manipulation of Biological Cells With a Robot-Tweezers System: A Stochastic Control Approach

Cell manipulation is a key technique involved in many cell surgery applications. Various automatic frameworks have been developed for optical manipulation of biological cells without consideration of stochastic perturbations, such as Brownian motion. In this brief, a stochastic control scheme for optical manipulation of biological cells is developed. On the basis of the stochastic dynamic model of an optically trapped biological cell, a vectorial backstepping control strategy and its adaptive case is formulated for cell trajectory tracking. The global noise-to-state stability of a closed-loop system in the presence of stochastic perturbations is analyzed. Simulation results demonstrate the performance of the proposed approach.
Examining the Factors Affecting Endodontic Therapy Failure

The purpose of the study was to examine the factors affecting Endodontic Therapy Failure (ETF). The study was descriptive cross-sectional conducted at College of Dental Science & Research Centre. Dental school in Pune, India. In the present study, 90 patients were analyzed in the treatment ward. According to the results, the highest endodontic failure was observed in 41-50 years age group (41.11%) and the least was in 21-30 (24.44%). According to the tooth type, most endodontic failures were observed in maxillary molars (44.4%), mandibular molars (20%) and maxillary premolars (15.5%). Endodontic treatment by general dental practitioners (GDPs) showed the highest failure rate (78.8%). The factors contributing to the most common endodontic problems were under-filled canals (33.3%) and unfilled and missed canals (17.7%). The study concluded that ETF occurred when the treatment was not according to the accepted standards. The main causes of ETF are microbial infection in the root canal system and these patients' not attending the specialists.
Effect of Type of Feed, Stocking Density and Grow-out site on GonadIndex, Growth and Survivorship of Cultured Sea Urchin (Tripneustesgratilla)

Grow-out culture of sea urchins in sea cages was developed as a means to enhance the recovery ofdepleted natural populations and to provide a supplemental source of income for fisherfolk. To improvereproductive output and commercial value of hatchery-produced sea urchins, the effects of food type,stocking density and grow-out site on test diameter (TD) growth, survivorship and gonad index (GI)were determined. Sea urchins fed with Sargassum spp. had higher TD growth rates, GI and bettergonad color than those fed with seagrass (Thalassia hemprichii). No significant differences werefound in the average growth rates of Sargassum-fed sea urchins reared at low and high stockingdensity. However, survivorship and average GI were significantly higher in lower stocking densitycages (200â€“250 sea urchins per m2). Reduction of density in the cages before harvest increased GIsignificantly. Survivorship in the sea cages was high in all grow-out sites except during the secondexperiment where mass mortalities occurred due to low salinities. Grow-out site and period hadsignificant effects on GI but not on TD growth. Possible effects of environmental and temporal factors,and implications of the results on the resource management and culture of sea urchins are discussed. Key Words: feeding, gonad index, grow-out culture, stocking density,Tripneustes gratilla Abbreviations: GI â€“ gonad index, HSD â€“ high stocking density, HINP â€“ Hundred Islands National Park, LSD â€“ lowstocking density, TD â€“ test diameter Â Â
Proximate and ultimate drivers of small‐mammal recolonization after fire: microhabitat conditions, rainfall and species traits

Fire is a vital agent of disturbance in African savanna systems, but the relative roles of microhabitat conditions, rainfall and species traits in faunal recolonization need clarification. In order to understand the proximate and ultimate drivers of recolonization after fire, small mammals and microhabitat vegetation were sampled in replicated burned and control sampling areas before and after randomly applied fire in a semi‐arid tropical savanna in southern Africa. Vegetation was reduced by fire but had recovered well by the end of the first rainy season. A total of 6851 small‐mammal captures were made during 18 816 trap nights. Four of the five study species were positively associated with increasing vegetation cover and exhibited strong microhabitat associations. Fire caused a complete turnover of individuals (due to a combination of dispersal and mortality). As predicted using life‐history traits, in the first year post‐fire, Gerbilliscus leucogaster, Mastomys spp. and Mus indutus were fire positive/fire neutral at a population level, while Steatomys pratensis and Dendromus mesomelas were fire negative/fire neutral. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that each species responds to specific structural elements at the microhabitat level, has a suite of life‐history traits that influence their microhabitat associations/response to fire and recolonizes after fire as relevant microhabitat elements recover. The hypothesis that rainfall stimulates microhabitat recovery and thus is a major determinant of the recovery of small‐mammal populations after fire was also supported. Given the importance of rainfall, climate change could pose significant conservation challenges in the long term. Continued research on life‐history attributes and fire response could result in a useful management tool in the short term.
Fine-Grained Giant Panda Identification

The image-based fine-grained identification of individual giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is an emerging technology, and it is extraordinarily challenging due to the extremely subtle visual differences between individual giant pandas and limited annotated training data. To address these challenges, we propose the Feature-Fusion Convolutional Neural Network with Patch Detector (FFCNN-PD) algorithm, which exploits the discriminative local patches and builds a hierarchical representation generated by fusing both global and local features. Specifically, an attentional cross-channel pooling is embedded in the FFCNN-PD to improve the class- specific patch detectors. In addition, we propose a new giant panda identification dataset (iPanda-30) to establish a benchmark. Experiments on the proposed iPanda-30 dataset and other fine-grained recognition datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the FFCNN-PD algorithm against the existing state-of-the-arts.
The dual distance model of tourism movement in intra-regional travel

ABSTRACT This study aims to reconcile the discrepancy between economic theory and distance decay theory by developing the dual distance model to better explain tourism movement/demand. Drawing on data from three different sources in China, findings indicate that while geographic distance significantly influences travel demand, economic distance does not, ceteris paribus. The interaction of these two distance factors offers new insights into how the taken-for-granted distance decay curve is contingent upon the economic distance between the source market and the destination. Implications on theory and practice are also presented in the article.
Genetic and Phenotypic Characterization of Rice Backcrossed Inbred Sister Lines of Saltol in Temperate Saline Reclaimed Area

Saltol is one of the most well-known quantitative loci (QTLs) for salinity tolerance in rice. It has been used to develop highly tolerant rice varieties in saline and coastal areas in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Africa. However, the functional activity of Saltol is not well known, and the molecular marker application of readily developed linked markers in Saltol has not always been successful in the rice breeding programs for salinity tolerance improvement. Interestingly, two BC2F9 sister backcrossed inbred lines (BILs), which have been developed by marker-assisted backcrossing utilized the linked markers of Saltol to improve the salinity tolerance of MS11 (a temperate japonica growing in tropical condition). The BILs showed very different phenotypic and stress tolerance, although both contained the Saltol QTL. The genomic similarity of the two BILs was 73%, and we have identified the genomic sites of different genic constitutions between the lines utilizing background genotyping. The stress response of the two BILs showed difference in survival rate, grain yield under highly saline field condition, and SPAD, SES in hydroponic conditions. MS11SaltolA showed salinity tolerance through Na + /K + homeostasis with relatively high K + ion uptake and low Na + ion uptake in the seedling stage. Further genomic analyses with whole genome resequencing is ongoing to study on gene interactions. The developed highly tolerant MS11-SaltolA can be used as an improved donor in rice molecular breeding for high salinity tolerance.
MAVKA: Investigation of stellar brightness extrema approximation stability for various methods

We developed the software package MAVKA for the determination of characteristics of extrema (moment of extremum, magnitude) and their errors. The program realizes the application of 11 basic functions for approximation of extrema. We tested all these methods in two parts. In the first part we used generated data sets (various smooth curves with noise). We investigated deviations between generated and computed values of moments of extremum and magnitude, as well as execution time for different extrema parameters. In the second part we used real observations of different variable stars using photometric and visual observations from different databases.
Desenvolvimento inicial de clones IAC de seringueira em São José do Rio Preto, SP

In this study the development of four clones (IAC 35; 40; 300 e 301) of rubber tree [Hevea brasiliensis (Willd. ex A. Juss.) Muell. Arg. ] selected by Instituto Agronomico de Campinas were evaluated during the first 24 months of cultivation. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications and four plants for parcel following the 1.5mx1. 0m spacing at Sao Jose do Rio Preto, SP. The clone RRIM 600 was used as check. The variables analyzed were the trunk girth, the number of matured whorl, the photosynthesis rate and the concentrations of chlorophyll a, b, total and carotenoids. At the end of the experiment the values of trunk girth at 0.5m above the budgrafting union varied from 5.85 cm (IAC 301) to 10.53 cm (IAC 300) and the mean number of matured whorl varied from 2.58 (IAC 301) to 3.91 (RRIM 600). During the dry season, when the plants were 22 month old, the mean value of photosynthesis rate of IAC 40 and IAC 301 (12mol m-2 s-1) were lower compared to the other clones (15mol m-2 s-1). The chlorophyll a, b and total carotenoids concentrations were equal or superior to the check, never lower. Considering the variables analyzed, excluding the IAC 301, the other clones show performance comparable to RRIM 600.
A game of patience between predator and prey: waiting for opponent’s action determines successful capture or escape

When predator and prey animals face each other, preemptive actions by both sides are considered to mediate successful capture or escape. However, in spite of the general presumption, some animals, such as predatory snakes and their frog prey, occasionally remain motionless or move slowly for a while before striking or escaping, respectively. To clarify the possible advantages of this behaviour, we examined interactions between Japanese Four-lined Ratsnakes (Elaphe quadrivirgata (H. Boie, 1826)) and Black-spotted Pond Frogs (Pelophylax nigromaculatus (Hallowell, 1861)), focusing especially on kinematic features of strike behaviour of snakes and flight behaviour of frogs in close quarters. Staged encounter experiments and field observations revealed that counteractions against an opponent’s preemptive actions are effective for both snakes and frogs until a certain distance because they are hardly able to change their trajectories once they initiate strike or escape behaviours. Snakes and frogs also appropriately switched their behaviour from waiting for the opponent’s action to taking preemptive action at this threshold distance. These results suggested the occurrence of a game of patience between snakes and frogs in which they wait for the opponent’s action to achieve effective countermeasures. Our study provides new insights for predicting optimal decision-making by predators and prey and will contribute to a better understanding of their strategies.
Kinase‐Catalyzed Biotinylation of Peptides, Proteins, and Lysates

Kinase‐catalyzed protein phosphorylation plays an essential role in a variety of biological processes. Methods to detect phosphoproteins and phosphopeptides in cellular mixtures will aid in cell biological and signaling research. Our laboratory recently discovered the utility of γ‐modified ATP analogues as tools for studying phosphorylation. Specifically, ATP‐biotin can be used for labeling and visualizing phosphoproteins from cell lysates. Because the biotin tag is suitable for protein detection, the biotinylation reaction can be applied to multiple phosphoproteomics applications. Herein, we report a general protocol for labeling phosphopeptides and phosphoproteins in biological samples using kinase‐catalyzed biotinylation. Curr. Protoc. Chem. Biol. 4:83‐100 © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.