Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Complex male display and female choice in the spotted bowerbird: specialized functions for different bower decorations

Abstract Male bowerbirds build and decorate bowers to attract females as copulation partners. Spotted bowerbirds, Chlamydera maculata , are atypical in having widely spaced display sites, bowers that are greatly diverged from those of closely related species, and extremely intense, aggressive displays. Results from the continuous monitoring of bowers show that (1) a few males account for the majority of matings, (2) the two most common decoration types, bones and glass, explain a large proportion of the variation in male mating success and (3) large inter-bower distances relate to low levels of decoration stealing and bower destruction. Components of male mating success, male ability to attract female visitors to the bower, and male courtship success correlate respectively with counts of bones and glass. Bones are spread widely around the bower and glass is placed close to it supporting the hypothesis that bones act to attract females towards the bower and glass functions later to stimulate females in the bower. This temporal sequencing of courtship functions represents a novel explanation for the evolution of complex male display traits.
Comparison of the Diagnostic Accuracies of 1.5T and 3T Stress Myocardial Perfusion Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance for Detecting Significant Coronary Artery Disease

Objective To compare the diagnostic performance of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) myocardial perfusion at 1.5- and 3-tesla (T) for detecting significant coronary artery disease (CAD), with invasive coronary angiography (ICA) as the reference method. Materials and Methods We prospectively enrolled 281 patients (age 62.4 ± 8.3 years, 193 men) with suspected or known CAD who had undergone 1.5T or 3T CMR and ICA. Two independent radiologists interpreted perfusion defects. With ICA as the reference standard, the diagnostic performance of 1.5T and 3T CMR for identifying significant CAD (≥ 50% diameter reduction of the left main and ≥ 70% diameter reduction of other epicardial arteries) was determined. Results No differences were observed in baseline characteristics or prevalence of CAD and old myocardial infarction (MI) using 1.5T (n = 135) or 3T (n = 146) systems. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for detecting significant CAD were similar between the 1.5T (84%, 64%, 74%, 76%, and 0.75 per patient and 68%, 83%, 66%, 84%, and 0.76 per vessel) and 3T (80%, 71%, 71%, 80%, and 0.76 per patient and 75%, 86%, 64%, 91%, and 0.81 per vessel) systems. In patients with multi-vessel CAD without old MI, the sensitivity, specificity, and AUC with 3T were greater than those with 1.5T on a per-vessel basis (71% vs. 36%, 92% vs. 69%, and 0.82 vs. 0.53, respectively). Conclusion 3T CMR has similar diagnostic performance to 1.5T CMR in detecting significant CAD, except for higher diagnostic performance in patients with multi-vessel CAD without old MI.
Helping each Other: A Framework for Customer-to-Customer Suggestion Mining using a Semi-supervised Deep Neural Network

Suggestion mining is increasingly becoming an important task along with sentiment analysis. In today's cyberspace world, people not only express their sentiments and dispositions towards some entities or services, but they also spend considerable time sharing their experiences and advice to fellow customers and the product/service providers with two-fold agenda: helping fellow customers who are likely to share a similar experience, and motivating the producer to bring specific changes in their offerings which would be more appreciated by the customers. In our current work, we propose a hybrid deep learning model to identify whether a review text contains any suggestion. The model employs semi-supervised learning to leverage the useful information from the large amount of unlabeled data. We evaluate the performance of our proposed model on a benchmark customer review dataset, comprising of the reviews of Hotel and Electronics domains. Our proposed approach shows the F-scores of 65.6% and 65.5% for the Hotel and Electronics review datasets, respectively. These performances are significantly better compared to the existing state-of-the-art system.
A Microfluidic Device for Culturing an Encapsulated Ovarian Follicle

Microfluidic chips have been proved effective in mimicking different organs of human body. Simulating human ovarian follicles by microfluidic device will be useful in exploring the mechanism of folliculogenesis and related diseases. In this paper, a microfluidic chip was designed to culture a single human pre-antral follicle. Ovarian follicles were first encapsulated in 3D calcium alginate hydrogel beads and then cultured on chip and in dish under same conditions. The diameters of cultured ovarian follicles were measured, and the same amount of medium was collected from microfluidic device or dish per two days for measuring the estradiol and androgen concentrations. The results confirmed the successful growth of ovarian follicles on chip with their hormonal trends and diameters increase, which were similar to ovarian follicles cultured in dish. It is concluded that this microfluidic chip can be used to culture a single human ovarian follicle, which provides a useful tool to explore the hormonal changes and their interactions during folliculogenesis.
Impact of Omega-3 Fatty Acids Among Other Nonpharmacological Interventions on Behavior and Quality of Life in Children with Compromised Conduct in Spain

Abstract The aim of this study was to assess the impact of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation among other nonpharmacological treatments on mental health and quality of life (QOL) of children with behavioral disorders. An observational multicenter study of 6- to 12-year-old children with behavior-related problems was performed in Spain with a three-month follow-up assessment. The Kidscreen-10 and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQ) were used to assess effectiveness of each intervention. Characteristics of study population were compared with those of the general population. Subanalyses of two homogenous subgroups, who received versus did not receive dietary supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids, were performed. The study included 942 children (69.1% male) with a mean (SD) age of 8.5 (1.8) years. Overall, patients’ health status and QOL significantly improved at three months (p < .001). Scores on the SDQ also improved, with significant reductions on all subscales (p < .05). Comparison of SDQ results with the same-age general population showed higher overall scores in the study population (8.5 [5.5] vs. 18.6 [8.1], respectively) and on all the subscales (p < .001 in all cases). The omega-3 fatty acid supplementation subgroup presented greater improvements in each category of SDQ (p < .05), except for the emotion subscale. Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation alone or in combination with other nonpharmacological treatments is effective in improving children’s mental health. Overall, nonpharmacological recommendations currently made by pediatricians seem to be effective in improving the perceived health status and patients’ QOL and in the reduction of health problems, especially hyperactivity/inattention and conduct problems.
The mismeasure of animal contests

Abstract Contests between rivals placing similar value on the resource at stake are commonly won by the rival having greater ‘resource holding potential’ (RHP). Mutual assessment of RHP difference between rivals is usually expected as an economical means of resolution; weaker rivals can retreat when they detect their relative inferiority, thereby avoiding costly, futile persistence. Models of contest resolution that entail retreat decisions based on estimates of RHP difference predict that contest duration diminishes as RHP difference between rivals increases because the asymmetry is more readily detected. This prediction appears to have been fulfilled in contests of diverse taxa, generating widespread support for assessment of RHP differences in contests. But few studies have considered alternatives in which each rival simply persists in accord with its own RHP (‘own RHP-dependent persistence’). In contests decided by own RHP-dependent persistence, in which costs accrue only through each rival's own actions, weaker rivals retreat first because they are inherently less persistent, and contest duration depends primarily on the weaker (losing) rival's RHP rather than RHP difference between the rivals. We show here that the analyses most commonly used to detect effects of RHP difference cannot discriminate between these alternatives. Because RHP difference between rivals tends to be correlated with RHP of the weaker rival in a pair, a negative relation between RHP difference and contest duration may be generated even when decisions of retreat are not based on estimated RHP difference. Many studies purporting to show a negative relation between RHP difference and contest duration may actually reflect an incidental association between weaker rival RHP and RHP difference. We suggest statistical and experimental approaches that may help to discriminate between effects of weaker rival RHP and true effects of RHP difference. We also discuss whether ‘true’ negative effects of RHP difference on contest duration always reflect retreat decisions based on estimated RHP differences. Copyright 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Daclatasvir and Sofosbuvir with Ribavirin for 24 Weeks in Chronic Hepatitis C Genotype-3-Infected Patients with Cirrhosis: A Phase III Study (ALLY-3C)

Background Optimal treatment for patients with HCV genotype-3 infection and liver cirrhosis remains a medical priority. Daclatasvir+sofosbuvir and ribavirin is a recommended option for such patients, but clinical trial data are lacking for treatment >16 weeks. Methods This was a single-arm, Phase III study of daclatasvir+sofosbuvir+ribavirin for 24 weeks in patients with compensated cirrhosis and HCV genotype-3 infection. The primary end point was sustained virological response at post-treatment week 12 (SVR12); the primary objective was to demonstrate statistical superiority to historical SVR12 data for 12 weeks’ daclatasvir+sofosbuvir without ribavirin in genotype-3-infected patients with cirrhosis (95% CI lower bound >79.0%). Results A total of 78 patients were treated (54 treatment-naive, 24 treatment-experienced including 8 with prior sofosbuvir exposure). SVR12 was achieved by 87% (68/78; 95% CI 77.7, 93.7%) of patients in the primary analysis of central laboratory data. One additional patient achieved SVR12 by local testing resulting in an overall SVR12 rate of 88% (95% CI 79.2, 94.6%) and the lower bound of the 95% CI above the historical threshold. SVR12 rates were 93% (50/54) for treatment-naive and 79% (19/24) for treatment-experienced patients. Of the nine non-SVR12 patients, four were lost to follow-up, two relapsed (both sofosbuvir-experienced), two had end-of-treatment virological failure and one discontinued early. There were no unexpected safety signals; only one patient discontinued for an adverse event. Conclusions Daclatasvir+sofosbuvir+ribavirin for 24 weeks was well tolerated and efficacious in HCV genotype-3-infected patients with compensated cirrhosis, with SVR12 outcomes comparable to previously reported outcomes in patients treated with this regimen for 12–16 weeks.
Why do lactating females nurse alien offspring? A review of hypotheses and empirical evidence

Female mammals sometimes nurse offspring that are not their own. The causes and function of allonursing for females remain puzzling given that lactation is energetically costly and augments the risk of pathogen transmission between mothers and alien offspring. To date five hypotheses have been put forward to explain why females nurse alien offspring. (1) Allonursing results from misguided parental behaviour. (2) Females reciprocate by nursing each other's offspring. (3) Females nurse related juveniles for inclusive fitness benefits. (4) Females nurse alien offspring to evacuate milk that their own offspring did not drink. (5) Inexperienced females that lactate spontaneously without reproducing themselves or that have lost their litter nurse alien offspring to improve their maternal skills. A review of empirical evidence showed that observations were consistent with predictions of the misdirected parental care, kin selection and milk evacuation hypotheses but not with predictions of the reciprocity and parenting hypotheses. However, probably because the study of mammals is not a trivial exercise, it is unclear to what extent each hypothesis can account for inter- and intraspecific variation in the female propensity to nurse alien offspring. Since the five hypotheses are not mutually exclusive, some observations said to support a given hypothesis may also be consistent with an alternative one. To tease apart the exact role of competitive hypotheses I propose some experimental designs. A detailed discussion of each hypothesis also reveals that the reason why females nurse alien offspring may be more intricate than was previously believed.
Profilin binding couples chloride intracellular channel protein CLIC4 to RhoA–mDia2 signaling and filopodium formation

Chloride intracellular channel 4 (CLIC4) is a cytosolic protein implicated in diverse actin-based processes, including integrin trafficking, cell adhesion, and tubulogenesis. CLIC4 is rapidly recruited to the plasma membrane by RhoA-activating agonists and then partly colocalizes with β1 integrins. Agonist-induced CLIC4 translocation depends on actin polymerization and requires conserved residues that make up a putative binding groove. However, the mechanism and significance of CLIC4 trafficking have been elusive. Here, we show that RhoA activation by either lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) or epidermal growth factor is necessary and sufficient for CLIC4 translocation to the plasma membrane and involves regulation by the RhoA effector mDia2, a driver of actin polymerization and filopodium formation. We found that CLIC4 binds the G-actin–binding protein profilin-1 via the same residues that are required for CLIC4 trafficking. Consistently, shRNA-induced profilin-1 silencing impaired agonist-induced CLIC4 trafficking and the formation of mDia2-dependent filopodia. Conversely, CLIC4 knockdown increased filopodium formation in an integrin-dependent manner, a phenotype rescued by wild-type CLIC4 but not by the trafficking-incompetent mutant CLIC4(C35A). Furthermore, CLIC4 accelerated LPA-induced filopodium retraction. We conclude that through profilin-1 binding, CLIC4 functions in a RhoA–mDia2–regulated signaling network to integrate cortical actin assembly and membrane protrusion. We propose that agonist-induced CLIC4 translocation provides a feedback mechanism that counteracts formin-driven filopodium formation.
Hybrid Pruning: Thinner Sparse Networks for Fast Inference on Edge Devices

We introduce hybrid pruning which combines both coarse-grained channel and fine-grained weight pruning to reduce model size, computation and power demands with no to little loss in accuracy for enabling modern networks deployment on resource-constrained devices, such as always-on security cameras and drones. Additionally, to effectively perform channel pruning, we propose a fast sensitivity test that helps us quickly identify the sensitivity of within and across layers of a network to the output accuracy for target multiplier accumulators (MACs) or accuracy tolerance. Our experiment shows significantly better results on ResNet50 on ImageNet compared to existing work, even with an additional constraint of channels be hardware-friendly number.
Maximum Likelihood Estimation in a Semicontinuous Survival Model with Covariates Subject to Detection Limits

Abstract Semicontinuous data are common in biological studies, occurring when a variable is continuous over a region but has a point mass at one or more points. In the motivating Genetic and Inflammatory Markers of Sepsis (GenIMS) study, it was of interest to determine how several biomarkers subject to detection limits were related to survival for patients entering the hospital with community acquired pneumonia. While survival times were recorded for all individuals in the study, the primary endpoint of interest was the binary event of 90-day survival, and no patients were lost to follow-up prior to 90 days. In order to use all of the available survival information, we propose a two-part regression model where the probability of surviving to 90 days is modeled using logistic regression and the survival distribution for those experiencing the event prior to this time is modeled with a truncated accelerated failure time model. We assume a series of mixture of normal regression models to model the joint distribution of the censored biomarkers. To estimate the parameters in this model, we suggest a Monte Carlo EM algorithm where multiple imputations are generated for the censored covariates in order to estimate the expectation in the E-step and then weighted maximization is applied to the observed and imputed data in the M-step. We conduct simulations to assess the proposed model and maximization method, and we analyze the GenIMS data set.
Are Ponto‐Caspian species able to cross salinity barriers? A case study of the gammarid Pontogammarus maeoticus

Abstract Recently, Ponto‐Caspian species (i.e., area of Azov, Black, and Caspian Seas) have invaded brackish and freshwater habitats of the North and Baltic Seas and the Laurentian Great Lakes in much higher numbers than expected based on shipping frequency and environmental conditions among these regions. Therefore, it has been suggested that Ponto‐Caspian species may have inherent advantages over other species in colonizing new habitats, or that they are of freshwater origin. Artificial selection offers the possibility to investigate phenotypic plasticity, shifts in environmental tolerance, and heritability of environmentally sensitive traits; therefore, in this study, we conducted artificial selection experiments on Ponto‐Caspian amphipod Pontogammarus maeoticus collected from 10 PSU to evaluate adaptation capacity of this species to different salinities, and to shed additional light on a possible freshwater origin of Ponto‐Caspian invaders. Our results indicated that selection to lower salinity than that of the population's ambient salinity is possible within few generations due to a likely existence of standing polymorphic variation for selection to act on. In contrast, selection to higher salinity was unsuccessful because the phenotypic variation was mainly caused by environmental variance and therefore might depend on new mutations. Consequently, the results of our study suggest that the tested species might be of freshwater origin and lacks necessary genetic background for adaptation to fully marine conditions. Further selection studies using more species and populations, as well as molecular techniques, should be conducted to elucidate if other Ponto‐Caspian invaders are of freshwater origin as well.
Structure and use of male territorial headbob signals by the lizard Anolis carolinensis


Abstract Abstract. Anolis carolinensis was found to have three stereotyped and distinct headbob patterns, referred to as types A, B and C. Each type had two variants, one in which the dewlap appeared mid-display, and a second in which dewlap extension was absent. Display types A, B and C comprised all of the headbob signalling during two contexts: (1) the advertisement context, when males were isolated (male-alone); and (2) the aggressive context, when each male was paired (male-male) during territorial contests. During the advertisement context, the mean display rate was 0·3/min; half of the displays were performed singly, the rest in bursts (volleys) of two to six displays/volley. Dewlap extension accompanied 97% of the displays, and all three types of displays were used with similar frequency. During the male-male context, mean display rate varied inversely with inter-male separation distance, being 1·4, 2·0 and 3·8/min at distances greater than 100 cm, within 20-100 cm and less than 20 cm, respectively. At large inter-male separation distances (> 60 cm), long volleys (containing four to nine displays) were common, type C displays predominated, and dewlap extension accompanied 92% of the displays. At short inter-male separation distances ( A. carolinensis headbob display behaviour. Recommendations are made for the abandonment of functional labels on patterns of display behaviour (e.g. assertion display and challenge display), regardless of taxon studied.
Risks of Colorectal Cancer and Cancer-Related Mortality in Familial Colorectal Cancer Type X and Lynch Syndrome Families.

Background The risk of cancers is well characterized in Lynch syndrome (LS) families but has been less studied in familial colorectal cancer type X (FCCTX) families. Methods In this article, we compare the risk estimates of first and second colorectal cancers (CRCs) in 168 FCTTX and 780 LS families recruited through the Colon Cancer Family Registry as well as the risk of cancer-related deaths and disease-free survival (DFS) after a first CRC. Our methodology is based on a survival analysis approach, developed specifically to model the occurrence of successive cancers (ie, first and second CRCs) in the presence of competing risk events (ie, death from any causes). Results We found an excess risk of first and second CRC in individuals with LS compared to FCCTX family members. However, for an average age at first CRC of 60 years in FCCTX families and 50 years in LS families, the DFS rates were comparable in men but lower in women from FCCTX vs LS families, eg , 75.1% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 69.0% to 80.9%) vs 78.9% (95% CI = 76.3% to 81.3%) for the 10-year DFS. The 10-year risk of cancer-related death was higher in FCCTX families vs LS families, eg, 15.4% in men (95% CI = 10.9% to 19.8%) and 19.3% in women (95% CI = 13.6% to 24.7%) vs 8.9% (95% CI = 7.5% to 11.4%) and 8.7% (95% CI = 7.1% to 10.8%), respectively. Conclusions Individuals with CRCs arising in the context of FCCTX do not experience the same improved DFS and overall survival of those with LS, and that difference may be relevant in management decisions.