Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic editing of the androgen receptor contributes to impaired male courtship behavior in zebrafish

ABSTRACT Elucidating the genes that contribute to behavioral variation has become an important endeavor in behavioral studies. While advances in genomics have narrowed down the list of candidate genes, functional validation of them has lagged behind, partly because of challenges associated with rapid gene manipulations. Consequently, few studies have demonstrated causal genetic changes linked to behaviors. The ‘gene editing revolution’ has offered unprecedented opportunities to investigate candidate genes responsible for critical behaviors. Here, we edited the androgen receptor gene (AR), which is associated with male reproductive behavior in zebrafish, using TAL effector nucleases (TALENs), and tested whether modifications at the AR impacted courtship during mating trials. We reveal that males lacking AR courted females significantly less, showing reduced levels of stereotypic behaviors. Consistent with previous studies, disrupting androgen mechanisms can lead to behavioral changes with potential fitness consequences. Our study highlights the possibility of genetically altering a reproductive behavior, further solidifying the link between genotype and behavior. Summary: Modification of a gene implicated in male reproductive behavior using genetic editing tools results in the impairment of courtship behavior in a vertebrate model.
Tractable nonparametric Bayesian inference in Poisson processes with Gaussian process intensities

The inhomogeneous Poisson process is a point process that has varying intensity across its domain (usually time or space). For nonparametric Bayesian modeling, the Gaussian process is a useful way to place a prior distribution on this intensity. The combination of a Poisson process and GP is known as a Gaussian Cox process, or doubly-stochastic Poisson process. Likelihood-based inference in these models requires an intractable integral over an infinite-dimensional random function. In this paper we present the first approach to Gaussian Cox processes in which it is possible to perform inference without introducing approximations or finitedimensional proxy distributions. We call our method the Sigmoidal Gaussian Cox Process, which uses a generative model for Poisson data to enable tractable inference via Markov chain Monte Carlo. We compare our methods to competing methods on synthetic data and apply it to several real-world data sets.
Effects of time-of-day on oxidative stress, cardiovascular parameters, biochemical markers, and hormonal response following level-1 Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of time-of-day on oxidative stress, cardiovascular parameters, muscle damage parameters, and hormonal responses following the level-1 Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test (YYIRT). A total of 11 healthy subjects performed an intermittent test (YYIRT) at two times-of-day (i.e., 07:00 h and 17:00 h), with a recovery period of ≥36 h in-between, in a randomized order. Blood samples were taken at the rest (baseline) and immediately (post-YYIRT) after the YYIRT for measuring oxidative stress, biochemical markers, and hormonal response. Data were statistically analyzed using one-way and two-way repeated measures ANOVA and Bonferroni test at p < 0.05. Observed power (α = 0.05) and partial eta-squared were used. Our results showed that oxygen uptake (VO2max), maximal aerobic speed, and the total distance covered tended to be higher in the evening (17:00 h). There was also a main effect of time-of-day for cortisol and testosterone concentration, which were higher after the YYIRT in the morning (p < 0.05). The heart rate peak and the rating of perceived exertion scales were lower in the morning (p < 0.05). However, the plasma glucose (p < 0.01), malondialdehyde, creatine kinase (p < 0.01), lactate dehydrogenase (p < 0.05), high-density lipoprotein (p < 0.01), total cholesterol (p < 0.01), and triglycerides (p < 0.05) were higher after the YYIRT in the evening. Low-density lipoprotein, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and lactate levels (p > 0.05) were similar for the morning and evening test. In conclusion, our findings suggest that aerobic performance presents diurnal variation with great result observed in the evening accompanied by an improvement of hormonal, metabolic, and oxidative responses. These data may help to guide athletes and coaches and contribute to public health recommendations on exercise and muscle damage particularly in the competitive periods.
The relationship between pectoral fin ray stiffness and swimming behavior in Labridae: insights into design, performance and ecology

ABSTRACT The functional capabilities of flexible, propulsive appendages are directly influenced by their mechanical properties. The fins of fishes have undergone extraordinary evolutionary diversification in structure and function, which raises questions of how fin mechanics relate to swimming behavior. In the fish family Labridae, pectoral fin swimming behavior ranges from rowing to flapping. Rowers are more maneuverable than flappers, but flappers generate greater thrust at high speeds and achieve greater mechanical efficiency at all speeds. Interspecific differences in hydrodynamic capability are largely dependent on fin kinematics and deformation, and are expected to correlate with fin stiffness. Here we examine fin ray stiffness in two closely related species that employ divergent swimming behaviors, the flapping Gomphosus varius and the rowing Halichoeres bivittatus. To determine the spatial distribution of flexural stiffness across the fin, we performed three-point bending tests at the center of the proximal, middle and distal regions of four equally spaced fin rays. Pectoral fin ray flexural stiffness ranged from 0.0001 to 1.5109 µN m2, and the proximal regions of G. varius fin rays were nearly an order of magnitude stiffer than those of H. bivittatus. In both species, fin ray flexural stiffness decreased exponentially along the proximodistal span of fin rays, and flexural stiffness decreased along the fin chord from the leading to the trailing edge. Furthermore, the proportion of fin area occupied by fin rays was significantly greater in G. varius than in H. bivittatus, suggesting that the proportion of fin ray to fin area contributes to differences in fin mechanics. Summary: Interspecific differences exist in pectoral fin ray flexural stiffness. The spatial distribution of stiffness across the fin surface enables an advantageous bending regime for propulsion in each species.
Low glucose availability stimulates progesterone production by mouse ovaries in vitro

ABSTRACT Steroid production by the ovary is primarily stimulated by gonadotropins but can also be affected by biological cues that provide information about energy status and environmental stress. To further understand which metabolic cues the ovary can respond to, we exposed gonadotropin-stimulated mouse ovaries in vitro to glucose metabolism inhibitors and measured steroid accumulation in media. Gonadotropin-stimulated ovaries exposed to 2-deoxy-d-glucose increased progesterone production and steroidogenic acute regulatory protein mRNA levels. However, oocytes and granulosa cells in antral follicles do not independently mediate this response because targeted treatment of these cell types with a different inhibitor of glucose metabolism (bromopyruvic acid) did not affect progesterone production. Elevated progesterone production is consistent with the homeostatic role of progesterone in glucose regulation in mammals. It also may regulate follicle growth and/or atresia within the ovary. These results suggest that ovaries can regulate glucose homeostasis in addition to their primary role in reproductive activity. Summary: Mouse ovaries respond directly to low glucose availability by increasing progesterone production; this may contribute to homeostatic processes that positively regulate blood glucose.
GreenCloud: a new architecture for green data center

Nowadays, power consumption of data centers has huge impacts on environments. Researchers are seeking to find effective solutions to make data centers reduce power consumption while keep the desired quality of service or service level objectives. Virtual Machine (VM) technology has been widely applied in data center environments due to its seminal features, including reliability, flexibility, and the ease of management. We present the GreenCloud architecture, which aims to reduce data center power consumption, while guarantee the performance from users' perspective. GreenCloud architecture enables comprehensive online-monitoring, live virtual machine migration, and VM placement optimization. To verify the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed architecture, we take an online real-time game, Tremulous, as a VM application. Evaluation results show that we can save up to 27% of the energy when applying GreenCloud architecture.
An analytical model for a GPU architecture with memory-level and thread-level parallelism awareness

GPU architectures are increasingly important in the multi-core era due to their high number of parallel processors. Programming thousands of massively parallel threads is a big challenge for software engineers, but understanding the performance bottlenecks of those parallel programs on GPU architectures to improve application performance is even more difficult. Current approaches rely on programmers to tune their applications by exploiting the design space exhaustively without fully understanding the performance characteristics of their applications. To provide insights into the performance bottlenecks of parallel applications on GPU architectures, we propose a simple analytical model that estimates the execution time of massively parallel programs. The key component of our model is estimating the number of parallel memory requests (we call this the memory warp parallelism) by considering the number of running threads and memory bandwidth. Based on the degree of memory warp parallelism, the model estimates the cost of memory requests, thereby estimating the overall execution time of a program. Comparisons between the outcome of the model and the actual execution time in several GPUs show that the geometric mean of absolute error of our model on micro-benchmarks is 5.4% and on GPU computing applications is 13.3%. All the applications are written in the CUDA programming language.
Experimental cerebral infarctioneffects of pentobarbital in Mongolian gerbils.

• Unilateral ligation of the carotid artery was done in 110 gerbils anesthetized with ether and 78 anesthetized with pentobarbital sodium. Thirty of the ether-anesthetized animals received no treatment. Starting one hour after ligation, 38 animals from each anesthesia group were given 3 mg/50 gm of body weight of pentobarbital intraperitoneally every eight hours for 72 hours. The remaining animals received normal saline on the same treatment schedule. Morbidity and mortality were recorded for the next six days. Eighty-five animals (45.2%) developed cerebral infarction. Only ten of the 38 animals (26.3%) anesthetized and treated with pentobarbital developed infarction. The percentage of infarction in the remaining groups ranged from 45% to 53%. There were no significant differences among the groups in the number of deaths or in the location or extent of the lesion.
Comparing Community and Prison-based Drug Treatments

Abstract Evaluations of drug treatment services are essential for the development and funding of future provision. This paper seeks to fill a gap in the existing literature by comparing community and prison-based drug services in terms of a range of factors that are important in assessing drug treatment effectiveness. Data were collected as part of the Drug Outcome Research in Scotland (DORIS) study. Over a period of approximately eight months, two structured questionnaires were administered to 716 drug users. At the first interview, 487 respondents (68%) were beginning community drug treatment and 229 (32%) were starting prison drug treatment. Analyses compared the two groups in terms of characteristics at treatment entry (‘inputs’); treatment services received (‘processes’); and characteristics at eight-month follow-up (‘outcomes’). Consistent with previous research, the findings provide evidence that—at least in the short term—drug treatments work. However, the clients of community drug agencies experienced greater improvements than the clients of prison-based services. The former received a broader range of support than their imprisoned counterparts and rated the assistance that they received significantly more positively. It is concluded that prison services in Scotland are making efforts to assist their drug-using inmates, but greater access to a wider range of prison drug treatments and efforts to improve prison clients’ perceptions of the help they receive are required.
Brain mitochondrial bioenergetics change with rapid and prolonged shifts in aggression in the honey bee, Apis mellifera

ABSTRACT Neuronal function demands high-level energy production, and as such, a decline in mitochondrial respiration characterizes brain injury and disease. A growing number of studies, however, link brain mitochondrial function to behavioral modulation in non-diseased contexts. In the honey bee, we show for the first time that an acute social interaction, which invokes an aggressive response, may also cause a rapid decline in brain mitochondrial bioenergetics. The degree and speed of this decline has only been previously observed in the context of brain injury. Furthermore, in the honey bee, age-related increases in aggressive tendency are associated with increased baseline brain mitochondrial respiration, as well as increased plasticity in response to metabolic fuel type in vitro. Similarly, diet restriction and ketone body feeding, which commonly enhance mammalian brain mitochondrial function in vivo, cause increased aggression. Thus, even in normal behavioral contexts, brain mitochondria show a surprising degree of variation in function over both rapid and prolonged time scales, with age predicting both baseline function and plasticity in function. These results suggest that mitochondrial function is integral to modulating aggression-related neuronal signaling. We hypothesize that variation in function reflects mitochondrial calcium buffering activity, and that shifts in mitochondrial function signal to the neuronal soma to regulate gene expression and neural energetic state. Modulating brain energetic state is emerging as a critical component of the regulation of behavior in non-diseased contexts. Summary: Brain mitochondrial function changes with aggressive social interactions and corresponds to age-related shifts in aggression in the honey bee.
The design of the force.com multitenant internet application development platform

Force.com is the preeminent on-demand application development platform in use today, supporting some 55,000+ organizations. Individual enterprises and commercial software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors trust the platform to deliver robust, reliable, Internet-scale applications. To meet the extreme demands of its large user population, Force.com's foundation is a metadatadriven software architecture that enables multitenant applications. The focus of this paper is multitenancy, a fundamental design approach that can dramatically improve SaaS application management. This paper defines multitenancy, explains its benefits, and demonstrates why metadata-driven architectures are the premier choice for implementing multitenancy.
Sexual Dimorphism in Health and Nutritional Status of Three Communities of Darjeeling District in West Bengal and Comparison with Some Other Populations of Eastern India: An Anthropometric Appraisal

Abstract A cross-sectional study undertaken in three endogamous populations, viz. Dhimal, Mech and Rajbanshi reveal some significant results of high prevalence of undernutrition and poor health condition. An anthropometric appraisal of health and nutrition of the individuals of both the sexes show remarkable sex differences with respect to the rates of chronic energy deficiency (CED) and undernutrition measured by body mass index (BMI ≤18.49 kg/m2) and frequency of subnormal health condition measured by Rohrer Index / Index of Corpulence (RI ≤1.19 gm/cm3). Samples of both sexes combined exhibit Dhimals (37.45%), Mech (13.02%) and Rajbanshi (23.56%) suffer from variable degrees of undernutrition (BMI ≤18.49 kg/m2). State of health assessed by Rohrer Index records 28.80% of the people of these three communities (both sexes combined) are in below normal range. Dhimals show highest rates of undernutrition (CED 27.04% in males and 46.58% in females) followed by Rahbanshis (CED 17.33% in males and 29.32% in females) and the Meches (CED 9.93% in males and 16.91% in females). Likewise, below standard health (RI ≤1.19 gm/cm3) is prevalent highest among the Dhimals (51.57% males and 35.61% females) subsequently in Rajbanshi (28.67% males and 22.99% females) and Mech (19.86% males and 12.67% females) communities. Conditions of the females are worse compared to the male counterparts of these communities. Results have been compared with further recent reports from some other populations of eastern India.
Design doctorate in computing: a defence of "doing cool stuff"

This position paper argues that it is time to extend the notion of worthwhile scholarship in Computer Science to embrace Design and to award doctorates of Design. There has been a concerted effort to place Computer Science on a firm empirical footing as Experimental Computer Science (ECS) [1]. The essential method of ECS is to built artefacts and then evaluate them experimentally [2][3]. An examiner of a doctorate in such research tends to look for a unified proposition that is defended by argument. The dissertation is expected to contain a coherent theory or thesis that is defended by means of facts and reasoning. It will have a theoretical insight which is validated by artefacts which play the role of exemplars or testbed. The real contribution is the theoretical insight. However it does seem artificial to require a proper experimental investigation of the effects of an artefact, when the artefact in itself is the thing of creative interest and passion. It seems that ECS does not pay enough attention to "Design". In this I am echoing Fred Brooks: "the scientist builds in order to study; the engineer studies in order to build" [4]. Computer Science derives from at least three disciplines, each with a different epistemology and methods: mathematics, experimental science and design or engineering [5]. As Matti Tedre [6] succinctly puts it: "It is notoriously difficult to conduct research in the intersection of research traditions without making a mess of it". The question here is how to do good design and get recognition for it. It is apparent that Computer Scientists are simply not accepting the calls of ECS. A repeat [7] (after twelve years) of the Tichy et al. [3] survey of ACM publications showed that in "Design and Modelling" papers still lacked empirical validation.
Human-aided computer cognition for e-discovery

Throughout its history, AI researchers have alternatively seen their mission as producing computer behavior that is indistinguishable from that of humans or as providing computational tools to augment human intelligence. The legal context provides a particularly rich domain for exploring the benefits of both approaches because human judgments are central to the delivery of just outcomes with formal mechanisms for challenging any and all judgments within its core practices and institutions. Through exploration of legal e-discovery, we explicitly address these alternative paradigms for applying interdisciplinary sciences to knowledge-based systems. We demonstrate through a series of quantitative studies that a system architecture for Human-Aided Computer Cognition automates and replicates judgments significantly better than the ubiquitous, traditional Computer-Aided Human Cognition of senior attorney relevance as is defined in legal practice.
Oxford Handbook of Applied Dental Sciences

Features: * Covers each topic on a single page, leaving space opposite for the reader to add his/her own notes or information * Supports students in the first two years of the dental course, remaining a useful reference tool in later years * Relates the medical sciences to a clinical dental background * Cross-referenced to the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Dentistry and the Oxford Handbook of Dental Patient Care
Legal text analysis of the modification provisions: a pattern oriented approach

One of the main emerging research challenge in the legal documentation is to penetrate in the meaningful and in the semantic of the norm content using NLP techniques and isolate relevant part of the linguistic speech. This paper wants present a methodology for modeling the modificatory provisions in deep in order to provide all the necessary formalization for managing semi-automatically the consolidation process.
Reviewing the literature constructing the field: Accounting for the CPN in practice and research

Making health practice and policy 'evidence-based' politicises clinical research, by making proof of 'effectiveness' the key to resources. In this paper we revisit a literature review of clinical effectiveness in psychiatric nursing in order to demonstrate how, in a multi-professional health system, scientific publications can also function as claims in the competition for resources. We consider the rhetorical dimension both of the literature reviewed, and of the act of literaturereviewing itself. Each genre comprising 'the literature' constructs a version of the field of mental health care and a version of the CPN within the field. Each genre thereby constructs 'effectiveness' differently. We therefore recast the problem of determining the effectiveness of Community Psychiatric Nurses (CPNs) as the problem of determining how the problem of CPN effectiveness is constructed as a problem in different discursive contexts, i.e. by different professional and non-professional discourse communities. In reconstructing the problem of effectiveness as one part of the wider struggle for definition of the field of mental health care, the genres we consider are: • care studies, in which CPNs report on their own work; • qualitative studies related to CPN effectiveness; • users' reports on their mental health experiences; • the 'hidden CPN'- loss of information in studies of services; • the 'disappearing CPN'- loss of role specificity in community psychiatric projects. Concluding with a case study of the literature as political remote control (negotiating the CPN as a resource in community mental health care), we show how, if the field can be seen as a field of interests, sometimes openly displayed, sometimes not, a basic game being played in the literature is that of differently placed social groups seeking control of mental health services in the community through the production of legitimating accounts of practice.