Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tracking changes in chromosomal arrangements and their genetic content during adaptation

There is considerable evidence for an adaptive role of inversions, but how their genetic content evolves and affects the subsequent evolution of chromosomal polymorphism remains controversial. Here, we track how life‐history traits, chromosomal arrangements and 22 microsatellites, within and outside inversions, change in three replicated populations of Drosophila subobscura for 30 generations of laboratory evolution since founding from the wild. The dynamics of fitness‐related traits indicated adaptation to the new environment concomitant with directional evolution of chromosomal polymorphism. Evidence of selective changes in frequency of inversions was obtained for seven of 23 chromosomal arrangements, corroborating a role for inversions in adaptation. The evolution of linkage disequilibrium between some microsatellites and chromosomes suggested that adaptive changes in arrangements involved changes in their genetic content. Several microsatellite alleles increased in frequency more than expected by drift in targeted inversions in all replicate populations. In particular, there were signs of selection in the O3+4 arrangement favouring a combination of alleles in two loci linked to the inversion and changing along with it, although the lack of linkage disequilibrium between these loci precludes epistatic selection. Seven other alleles increased in frequency within inversions more than expected by drift, but were not in linkage disequilibrium with them. Possibly these alleles were hitchhiking along with alleles under selection that were not specific to those inversions. Overall, the selection detected on the genetic content of inversions, despite limited coverage of the genome, suggests that genetic changes within inversions play an important role in adaptation.
Endothelial Cell Activation in Emergency Department Patients with Sepsis-Related and Non-Sepsis-Related Hypotension

Previous studies found increased circulating levels of biomarkers related to endothelial cell activation in patients with sepsis, particularly in the most severe sepsis stages of sepsis shock. It remains unclear, however, whether this activation is mainly driven by sepsis-specific mechanisms or occurs as a generalized inflammatory response. The objective of this analysis was to compare patterns of biomarkers of endothelial cell activation in patients with hypotension due to sepsis and nonsepsis etiologies. This is a secondary analysis of a prospective, observational cohort study including emergency department patients older than17 years with an episode of hypotension defined as any systolic blood pressure measurement less than 100 mmHg. Etiology of hypotension episodes was classified as sepsis or nonsepsis (eg, cardiac or hemorrhagic). Endothelial activation biomarkers of cell adhesion (E-selectin, vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 [VCAM-1], and intercellular adhesion molecule 1 [ICAM-1]), coagulation (plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 [PAI-1]), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling (VEGF, soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 [sFLT-1]) were assayed. A total of 161 patients were analyzed. Hypotension was classified as sepsis (n = 69), nonsepsis (cardiac [n = 35], hemorrhagic [n = 12]), or indeterminate (n = 45). With the exception of PAI-1, median plasma levels of all endothelial markers were significantly higher in patients with sepsis compared with nonsepsis etiology (P < 0.05 for all comparisons). Logistic regression analysis, adjusted for age, sex, mean blood pressure level, and mortality, confirmed a significant association of E-selectin (odds ratio [OR], 3.7; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.7-7.8, P < 0.001) and sFLT-1 (OR, 2.0; CI, 1.1-3.8; P < 0.03) with sepsis etiology. Biomarkers VCAM-1 (OR, 2.0; CI, 0.88-4.4; P = 0.1), VEGF (OR, 1.5; CI, 0.98-2.2; P = 0.06), ICAM-1 (OR, 1.5; CI, 0.9-2.6; P = 0.2), and PAI-1 (OR, 1.4; CI, 0.8-2.3; P = 0.2) did not reach statistical significance. This study found a sepsis-specific activation of endothelium activation markers, particularly E-selectin and sFLT-1, in emergency department patients with hypotension.ABBREVIATIONS-ED-emergency department; ICAM-1-soluble intercellular adhesion molecule 1; PAI-1-plasminogen activator inhibitor 1; sFLT-1-soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1; VCAM-1-soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule 1; VEGF-vascular endothelial growth factor
Ridethrough of wind turbines with doubly-fed induction generator during a voltage dip

In this paper, a solution is described that makes it possible for wind turbines using doubly-fed induction generators to stay connected to the grid during grid faults. The key of the solution is to limit the high current in the rotor in order to protect the converter and to provide a bypass for this current via a set of resistors that are connected to the rotor windings. With these resistors, it is possible to ride through grid faults without disconnecting the turbine from the grid. Because the generator and converter stay connected, the synchronism of operation remains established during and after the fault and normal operation can be continued immediately after the fault has been cleared. An additional feature is that reactive power can be supplied to the grid during long dips in order to facilitate voltage restoration. A control strategy has been developed that takes care of the transition back to normal operation. Without special control action, large transients would occur.
Sensitivity to change of composite and frequency scores of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory in mild to moderate dementia

ABSTRACT Background: The Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) is widely used to assess psychopathology in dementia. The scoring involves ratings of frequency and severity, as well as the calculation of a composite score. It was suggested recently that, due to lower variance, the frequency score might be more sensitive to detect treatment-related change and to discriminate active treatment from placebo than the composite score, particularly in milder forms of the disease. Methods: Based on data from three randomized controlled trials in patients with mild to moderate dementia, standardized changes were calculated for both frequency and composite scores for two strata of disease severity. The two strata were formed by dichotomizing the sample along the median score of the short cognitive performance test (SKT) battery. Results: Across all studies and for both severity strata, standardized changes in frequency scores were not consistently larger than those in composite scores and both scores discriminated active treatment from placebo at similar probabilities for type-1 error. Conclusion: Our findings do not support the notion that there is a difference between frequency score and composite score with respect to their sensitivity to treatment-related change.
The Method for Extraction and Identification of Non-intrusive Household Appliances Load Features Based on WPT Algorithm

To address the problems of non-intrusive household appliances load identification, such as the difficulty of accurately extracting feature parameters and low accuracy of the identification algorithm, a method for extracting and identifying load features of household appliances based on wavelet packet transform is proposed. First, the wavelet packet decomposition algorithm is used to decompose the voltage and current waveforms into eight energy features, and the effective energy features of household appliances are extracted through the difference analysis method. Then, the accurate identification of different household appliances load is achieved by the error reverse propagation neural network method. Experiments show that the proposed method can effectively identify four types of household appliances load, and it proves good reliability and robustness of this method compared to common methods of signal feature extraction for household appliances load.
Novel Transport Layer Aware Uplink Scheduling Scheme for LTE-based Networks

In this paper we propose a novel Transport Layer Aware Uplink Scheduling Scheme (TraLAUS) for Long Term Evolution (LTE) Networks. It is a cross-layer scheduling scheme in which scheduling decisions are taken at the MAC (Medium Access Control) Layer of the TCP/IP Protocol stack based on Physical and Transport Layer informations. In this scheme, the eNodeB takes the uplink scheduling decisions based on the demand and CQI (Channel Quality Information) received from the UEs (User Equipments). Through extensive simulations, we compare the performance of our proposed algorithm with that of classical Round Robin (RR) and channel-aware Modified Round Robin (MRR) uplink scheduling schemes. From the simulation results, we observe that our algorithm performs significantly better in terms of average throughput (gain of 18.89% over RR and 13.89% over MRR), packet drops and queue length as compared to that of RR and MRR uplink scheduling schemes, and at the same time ensures fairness among the UEs.
Squamometry: an evaluation method for a barrier protectant (tannic acid)

Squamometry for evaluating skin barrier substances is described. Forearms of 8 volunteers were dosed with 0, 0.25, 0.5, and 1% sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) in distilled water (semi‐open method) for 24 h, to skin pretreated with distilled water and 5% tannic acid, a model barrier protectant. Squamometric evaluation indicated the skin damage increased with SLS concentration in a dose‐dependent manner, and that tannic acid reduced the damage (p<0.01). The results suggest that squamometry may be a useful method for determining efficacy of skin barrier substances.
Effect of Growth Media and Incubation Time on the Culturability of Soil Bacteria

The effect of growth medium and incubation time were investigated by determining the number of colonies that were visible on triplicate plates of three different media on daily intervals. The viable counts were significantly different between the three different media even after the first day and this continued for seven days. Colony counts on the three media reached their maximum on the third day of incubation. The use of Nutrient agar (NA) and Plate count agar (PCA) resulted in increasing counts with increasing incubation time respectively. Counts obtained from the Nutrient agar were higher than that of Plate count agar followed by the soil extract agar (SEA) which had the lowest count and a longer bacteria lag phase due to the low nutrient content in the soil extract agar. The Plate count agar formed more distinct colonies than the Nutrient agar and Soil extract agar. During the incubation period, colonies appeared on the Nutrient agar even on the seventh day. These characteristics of the Nutrient agar to support a higher number of colonies for a long period of time could be attributed to its nutrient composition. The colony counts upon incubation for seven days ranged from a mean of 3.0x10 5 cfu/g on Soil extract agar, 6.1x10 5 cfu/g on Plate count agar and 7.6x10 5 cfu/g on Nutrient agar for example A which was a cultivated loamy soil and 1.3x10 5 cfu/g also on Soil extract agar, 3.9x10 5 cfu/g on Plate agar and 5.6x10 5 cfu/g Nutrient agar for soil sample B which was a non-cultivated sandy soil. Longer incubation time increased colony count on the different growth media because it was so obvious on the Soil extract agar. No visible colonies were observed from the first to the third day on the Soil extract agar, visible colonies appeared on the fourth day of incubation. Also in the other growth media, there was an increase in colony count on the third day upon incubation.
Big active learning

Active learning is a common strategy to deal with large-scale data with limited labeling effort. In each iteration of active learning, a query is ready for oracle to answer such as what the label is for a given unlabeled data. Given the method, we can request the labels only for those data that are essential and save the labeling effort from oracle. We focus on pool-based active learning where a set of unlabeled data is selected for querying in each run of active learning. To apply pool-based active learning to massive high-dimensional data, especially when the unlabeled data set is much larger than the labeled set, we propose the APRAL and MLP strategies so that the computation for active learning can be dramatically reduced while keeping the model power more or less the same. In APRAL, we avoid unnecessary data re-ranking given an unlabeled data selection criteria. To further improve the efficiency, with MLP, we organize the unlabeled data in a multi-layer pool based on a dimensionality reduction technique and the most valuable data to know their label information are more likely to store in the top layers. Given the APRAL and MLP strategies, the active learning computation time is reduced by about 83% if compared to the traditional active learning ones; at the same time, the model effectiveness remains.
Complete mitochondrial genome of the greater Coucal, Centropus sinensis (Aves: Cuculiformes)

Abstract The complete mitochondrial genome of Centropus sinensis is determined in this study. The circle genome with the 17 159 bp total length contained 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes, and 1 control region. Phylogenetic tree shows that C. sinensis was sister to C. unirufus. The mitogenome of C. sinensis will contribute to researches of mitogenomic evolution, phylogenetic relationship, and conservation genetics.
Correlates of (inappropriate) benzodiazepine use: the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA).

AIM Results on determinants of benzodiazepine (BZD) use in general and inappropriate use were inconsistent and mostly univariate. The relative importance of sociodemographic, psychological and physical determinants has never been investigated in a comprehensive, multivariate model. METHODS We included 429 BZD users and 2423 non-users from the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA) in order to investigate sociodemographic, psychological and physical determinants of BZD use and inappropriate use by logistic and linear regression analyses. RESULTS BZDs were used by a considerable proportion of the 2852 NESDA participants (15.0%). BZD use was independently associated with older age, singleness, unemployment, treatment in secondary care, higher medical consumption (more severe) anxiety, depression (OR [95% CI]=1.95 [1.29, 2.93]), comorbidity, insomnia, SSRI (OR [95% CI]=2.05 [1.55, 2.70]), TCA and other antidepressant (OR [95% CI]=2.44 [1.64, 3.62]) use. Overall, BZD use was rarely in accordance with all guidelines, mainly because most users (82.5%) exceeded the recommended duration of safe use. Inappropriate use was independently associated with older age (β=0.130) and chronic illnesses (β=0.120). Higher scores on agreeableness were associated with less inappropriate use. CONCLUSIONS Mentally or physically vulnerable subjects were most likely to use BZDs. The most vulnerable (i.e. the old and physically ill) BZD users were at highest risk of inappropriate BZD use. Without further evidence of the effectiveness of BZDs in long-term use, caution in initiating BZD prescriptions is recommended, particularly when patients are chronically ill and old, as those are most likely to display inappropriate use.
Five-Year Follow-Up Study on Plasma Insulin Levels in Newly Diagnosed NIDDM Patients and Nondiabetic Subjects

A representative group of middle-aged (45- to 64-yr-old) patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) (n = 133; 70 men, 63 women) were examined at the time of diagnosis and 5 yr afterward for metabolic control and insulin response to oral glucose; 144 nondiabetic control subjects (62 men, 82 women) were similarly examined twice between 5-yr intervals. At the 5-yr examination, 56 of the diabetic patients (36 men, 20 women) were on diet therapy only, 60 (27 men, 33 women) received oral antidiabetic drugs, and 5 were treated with insulin. The metabolic control of diabetic patients was poor at the time of diagnosis and 5-yr examination. Fasting plasma insulin levels were higher in diabetic patients than in control subjects both at baseline (23 ± 2 vs. 14 ± 1 mU/L, P < 0.01, for men; 26 ± 2 vs. 15 ± 1 mU/L, NS, for women) and 5-yr examination (19 ± 1 vs. 16 ± 2 mU/L, NS, for men; 29 ± 5 vs. 15 ± 1 mU/L, P < 0.05, for women). The frequency of insulin deficiency in diabetic patients based on a postglucagon (1 mg i.v.) C-peptide level <0.60 nM was 3.3% at the 5-yr examination, indicating that true insulin deficiency was uncommon during the first years after diagnosis of diabetes in middle-aged subjects.
Flexible Temperature Sensor based on Fluorinated Graphene

Graphene derivatives are promising nanomaterials for the development of various flexible electronic devices. In this work, a flexible temperature sensor based on fluorinated graphene (FG) was developed, using screen printing and drop-casting processes. Interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) were fabricated by the deposition of silver (Ag) ink on the polyimide substrate, using the screen printing process, and the FG sensing layer was formed by drop-casting of FG suspension on the IDEs. The resistive response of the temperature sensor towards temperatures varying from 10 °C to 80 °C, in steps of 10 °C, was investigated. The fabricated temperature sensor has a short response time (≤ 2 s) for different target temperature levels. A linear relationship between the relative resistance change (ΔR/Rb) and the temperature was observed, with a slope of -0.0013/°C and a correlation coefficient of 0.9964. The overall ΔR/Rb of the sensor was measured as -8.85% when the temperature changed from 20°C to 80 °C. The average temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of the temperature sensor was calculated as -0.132 ± 0.005 %/°C for the temperature range of 20 °C to 80 °C.
Information ethics for and from Africa

This paper deals in the first part with some initiatives concerning the role of information ethics for Africa such as NEPAD, UN ICT and AISI particularly since the World Summit on the Information Society. Information Ethics from Africa is a young academic field. Not much has been published so far on the impact of ICT on African societies and cultures from a philosophical perspective. The second part of the paper analyses some recent research on this matter particularly with regard to the concept of ubuntu. Finally the paper addresses some issues of the African Conference on Information Ethics held in Pretoria, 3-5 February 2007.
Biodistribution and acute toxicity of naked gold nanoparticles in a rabbit hepatic tumor model

Abstract There is a paucity of data regarding the safety of administering solid gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in large animal tumor models. We assessed the acute toxicity and biodistribution of 5 nm and 25 nm solid AuNPs in New Zealand White rabbits (n = 6 in each) with implanted liver Vx2 tumors 24 h after intravenous injection. Gold concentration was determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP) and imaged with transmission electron microscopy (TEM). There was no clinico-pathologic evidence of renal, hepatic, pulmonary, or other organ dysfunction. After 25 nm AuNP administration, the concentration of white blood cells increased after treatment (p = 0.001). Most other blood studies were unchanged. AuNPs were distributed to the spleen, liver, and Vx2 tumors, but not to other tissues. The urinary excretion of AuNPs was bimodal as measured by ICP. 25 nm AuNPs were more evenly distributed throughout tissues and may be better tools for medical therapy.
A New Miniature Wind Turbine for Wind Tunnel Experiments. Part II: Wake Structure and Flow Dynamics

An optimized three-bladed horizontal-axis miniature wind turbine, called WiRE-01, with the rotor diameter of 15 cm is designed and fully characterized in Part I of this study. In the current part of the study, we investigate the interaction of the turbine with a turbulent boundary layer. The comparison of the spectral density of the thrust force and the one of the incoming velocity revealed new insights on the use of turbine characteristics to estimate incoming flow conditions. High-resolution stereoscopic particle image-velocimetry (S-PIV) measurements were also performed in the wake of the turbine operating at optimal conditions. Detailed information on the velocity and turbulence structure of the turbine wake is presented and discussed, which can serve as a complete dataset for the validation of numerical models. The PIV data are also used to better understand the underlying mechanisms leading to unsteady loads on a downstream turbine at different streamwise and spanwise positions. To achieve this goal, a new method is developed to quantify and compare the effect of both turbulence and mean shear on the moment of the incoming momentum flux for a hypothetical turbine placed downstream. The results show that moment fluctuations caused by turbulence are bigger under full-wake conditions, whereas those caused by mean shear are clearly dominant under partial-wake conditions. Especial emphasis is also placed on how the mean wake flow distribution is affected by wake meandering. Conditional averaging based on the instantaneous position of the wake center revealed that when the wake meanders laterally to one side, a high-speed region exists on the opposite side. The results show that, due to this high-speed region, large lateral meandering motions do not lead to the expansion of the mean wake cross-section in the lateral direction.
The combined effects of single-nucleotide polymorphisms, tobacco products, and ethanol on normal resting blood mononuclear cells.

INTRODUCTION Tobacco and ethanol consumption are crucial factors in the development of various diseases including cancer. In this investigation, we evaluated the combined effects of a number of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), with ethanol and tobacco products on healthy individuals. METHODS Pure nicotine, cigarette smoke extract, and Swedish snuff (snus) extract were used. The effects were examined by means of in vitro cell cycle progression and cell death of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) obtained from healthy donors. RESULTS After 3 days, in vitro, resting PBMCs entered the S and G2 stage in the presence of 100 µM nicotine. The PBMCs only proceeded to S stage, in the presence of 0.2% ethanol. The nicotine- and ethanol-induced normal cell cycle progression correlated to a number of SNPs in the IL12RB2, Rad 52, XRCC2, P53, CCND3, and ABCA1 genes. Certain SNPs in Caspases 8, IL12RB2, Rad 52, MMP2, and MDM2 genes appeared to significantly influence the effects of EtOH-, snus-, and snus + EtOH-induced cell death. Importantly, the highest degree of cell death was observed in the presence of smoke + EtOH. The amount of cell death under this treatment condition also correlated to specific SNPs, located in the MDM2, ABCA1, or GASC1 genes. CONCLUSIONS Cigarette smoke in combination with ethanol strongly induced massive cell death. Long-term exposure to smoke and ethanol could provoke chronic inflammation, and this could be the initiation of disease including the development of cancer at various sites.
Extended multi-word trigger pair language model using data mining technique

A good language model is essential to a postprocessing algorithm for recognition systems. Trigger pair model has been used to investigate long distance dependent relationship. However, previous trigger pair model has only one word for its trigger. It is desirable that more words can be observed in the trigger for a better prediction of the triggered word. In this work, we view establishing trigger pair model as mining association rules in a large database and create a multiple words trigger pair model by using an adapted A priori algorithm. The new trigger pair model can be used in the stage of finding best path from a word lattice as traditional trigger pair model can. Specially, it can be used to correct mistakes remaining in the final result as well. Those mistakes would be unavoidable for other language models.