Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Environmental DNA Marker Development with Sparse Biological Information: A Case Study on Opossum Shrimp (Mysis diluviana)

The spread of Mysis diluviana, a small glacial relict crustacean, outside its native range has led to unintended shifts in the composition of native fish communities throughout western North America. As a result, biologists seek accurate methods of determining the presence of M. diluviana, especially at low densities or during the initial stages of an invasion. Environmental DNA (eDNA) provides one solution for detecting M. diluviana, but building eDNA markers that are both sensitive and species-specific is challenging when the distribution and taxonomy of closely related non-target taxa are poorly understood, published genetic data are sparse, and tissue samples are difficult to obtain. To address these issues, we developed a pair of independent eDNA markers to increase the likelihood of a positive detection of M. diluviana when present and reduce the probability of false positive detections from closely related non-target species. Because tissue samples of closely-related and possibly sympatric, non-target taxa could not be obtained, we used synthetic DNA sequences of closely related non-target species to test the specificity of eDNA markers. Both eDNA markers yielded positive detections from five waterbodies where M. diluviana was known to be present, and no detections in five others where this species was thought to be absent. Daytime samples from varying depths in one waterbody occupied by M. diluviana demonstrated that samples near the lake bottom produced 5 to more than 300 times as many eDNA copies as samples taken at other depths, but all samples tested positive regardless of depth.
A reputation model for evaluating Web services

The application of Web Services is more and more extensive, in an open network environment the service selection is based widely on reputation of providers. So, how to evaluate reputation of providers becomes a key issue. In order to make reputation value obtained by service requesters more objective, truthful, a new reputation metric named DREW for service providers is designed by integrating Direct reputation, Relationship reputation, Sell-oneself reputation and Witness reputation in this paper. The experimental results show that this metric can defend malicious and unreliable nodes effectively using past experience and present evaluations.
Local sequence based rendezvous algorithms for Cognitive Radio Networks

Rendezvous process plays an important role in constructing Cognitive Radio Networks (CRNs), through which a user establishes a link on a common licensed channel for communication with its neighbors. Generally, the licensed spectrum is divided into N channels and most blind rendezvous algorithms are realized by the “channel hopping” method where each user repeats a Global Sequence constructed on top of all the N channels. This global sequence based method may contain lots of redundant channels resulting in large rendezvous time especially when the number of available channels each user has only accounts for a small fraction of all the N channels. In this paper, we introduce the Local Sequence based rendezvous algorithms where the local sequence is only constructed on top of each user's available channels and different user's local sequence could be different. Our first local sequence based algorithm called LS can guarantee rendezvous in O(N) time slots for symmetric users (both users have the same set of available channels) and in O(N2) time slots for asymmetric users, which matches the best known results [11]. Our major contribution is the Modified Local Sequence (MLS) based algorithm which can guarantee an exponentially shorter rendezvous time than the best known results when the number of available channels each user has is relatively small. Extensive simulation results comparing with the state-of-the-art rendezvous algorithms corroborate our theoretical analyses.
Platelet Function Tests: A Review of Progresses in Clinical Application

The major goal of traditional platelet function tests has been to screen and diagnose patients who present with bleeding problems. However, as the central role of platelets implicated in the etiology of arterial thrombotic diseases such as myocardial infarction and stroke became widely known, platelet function tests are now being promoted to monitor the efficacy of antiplatelet drugs and also to potentially identify patients at increased risk of thrombosis. Beyond hemostasis and thrombosis, an increasing number of studies indicate that platelets play an integral role in intercellular communication, are mediators of inflammation, and have immunomodulatory activity. As new potential biomarkers and technologies arrive at the horizon, platelet functions testing appears to take on a new aspect. This review article discusses currently available clinical application of platelet function tests, placing emphasis on essential characteristics.
Pilot-symbol assisted carrier synchronization: Cramer-Rao bound and synchronization performance

This contribution considers the joint estimation of the carrier phase and the frequency offset from a noisy linearly modulated burst signal containing random data symbols (DS) as well as known pilot symbols (PS). The corresponding Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRB) is derived. This bound indicates that it is potentially more accurate to estimate carrier phase and frequency from such a 'hybrid' burst than from a burst without PS or from the limited number of PS only. The new bound is compared with the performance of new and existing carrier synchronizers. We present the iterative soft-Decision-Directed (sDD) estimator with combined data-aided/non-data-aided (DA/NDA) initialization, which performs closely to the CRB, and provides a large improvement over the classical NDA estimator at low and moderate signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).
Variable structure position control of an industrial robotic manipulator

The use of a robust position controller for a robotic manipulator moving in free space is presented. The aim is to implement in practice a controller that is robust to uncertainties in the model of the system, as well as being inexpensive from a computational point of view. Variable structure theory provides the technique for the design of such controller. The design steps are presented, first from a theoretical perspective and then applied to the control of a two degree-of-freedom manipulator. Simulation results that backed the implementation are presented, followed by the experiments conducted and the results that were obtained. The conclusion is that variable structure control is readily applicable to industrial robots for the robust control of positions.
Uncoupling apical constriction from tissue invagination

Apical constriction is a widely utilized cell shape change linked to folding, bending and invagination of polarized epithelia. It remains unclear how apical constriction is regulated spatiotemporally during tissue invagination and how this cellular process contributes to tube formation in different developmental contexts. Using Drosophila salivary gland (SG) invagination as a model, we show that regulation of folded gastrulation expression by the Fork head transcription factor is required for apicomedial accumulation of Rho kinase and non-muscle myosin II, which coordinate apical constriction. We demonstrate that neither loss of spatially coordinated apical constriction nor its complete blockage prevent internalization and tube formation, although such manipulations affect the geometry of invagination. When apical constriction is disrupted, compressing force generated by a tissue-level myosin cable contributes to SG invagination. We demonstrate that fully elongated polarized SGs can form outside the embryo, suggesting that tube formation and elongation are intrinsic properties of the SG. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.22235. 001
Are Regional Trade Agreements Signed to Deter Military Conflicts ?

We analyze the interaction of economic and political determinants of regional trade agreements (RTA). In addition to standard trade gains, RTAs provide peace-promoting benefits by offering a political forum and by increasing the opportunity cost of trade destroying wars. If policy makers believe in the pacifying effect of RTAs, country-pairs with large trade gains from RTAs and high probability of conflict are more likely to sign an RTA. Using data on the 1950-2000 period, we show that this complementarity between economic and political gains is at work in the geography of RTAs. Country pairs characterized by a high frequency of old wars (which we use as a proxy of the probability of conflict) are shown to be more likely to sign RTAs, the more so the higher the trade gains from an RTA. These trade gains are estimated by a theory-driven empirical strategy to disentangle them from the political factors. We also show that, contrary to old wars, recent wars make it more difficult to negotiate an RTA. This suggests the existence of windows of opportunity to lock-in RTAs and peace. Finally multilateral trade openness, because it increases the probability of a bilateral conflict, increases the political incentive to sign RTAs. JEL classification: F12, F15
Fast dynamic and partial reconfiguration data path with low hardware overhead on Xilinx FPGAs

Dynamic and partial reconfiguration of Xilinx FPGAs is a well known technique in runtime adaptive system design. With this technique, parts of a configuration can be substituted while other parts stay operative without any disturbance. The advantage is the fact, that the spatial and temporal partitioning can be exploited with the goal to increase performance and to reduce power consumption due to the re-use of chip area. This paper shows a novel methodology for the inclusion of the configuration access port into the data path of a processor core in order to adapt the internal architecture and to re-use this access port as data- sink and source. It is obvious that the chip area, which is utilized by the hardware drivers for the internal configuration access port (ICAP), has to be as small as possible in comparison to the application functionality. Therefore, a hardware design with a small footprint, but with an adequate performance in terms of data throughput, is necessary. This paper presents a fast data path for dynamic and partial reconfiguration data with the advantage of a small footprint on the hardware resources.
The comparison between health literacy and quality of life in three groups of mothers with cerebral palsy, Autism and intellectual impairments

Background and objective: disability of children has multiple negative impacts on psychological and social on mothers. The study of health literacy in mothers with children with special needs and the impact of the health literacy on quality of life is necessary. The aim of this study was to compare the health literacy and quality of life in three groups of mothers including; Cerebral palsy, Autism, and intellectual impairments. Methods: The research method of this study was ex-post design. The statistical society of present study was all of the mothers with special needs care referred to rehabilitation centers in the west region of Tehran city by 2016. The samples of research were dividing into three groups (each group was 40 mothers). All of the participants were 120 mothers selecting by simple sampling method. For gathering data using the Health Literacy Questionnaire for Adults (HELIA) and World Health Organization Questionnaire of Quality of Life (WHOQOL). The data were analyzed by ANOVA and with SPSS software version 21. Results: The results indicated that three groups of mothers had a significant difference in health literacy and sub-scales of the questionnaire (p 0/05). Conclusion: The findings revealed that the study of health literacy was the impact of quality of life of mothers. Therefore, the educational and awareness programs seem to be urgent for improving the health literacy and quality of life in three groups of mothers and considering by health professionals. Â Paper Type: Research Article.
The redesigning of a higher education online course as a virtual learning community: its process and outcomes

Distance education efforts at the University of Puerto Rico's Rio Piedras Campus emerged as a result of a grassroot movement. The Faculty of the Graduate School of Information Sciences and Technologies were early adopters of distance education on campus. The professors designed several online courses as part of a pilot project. Since they were more related to Web based education platforms than with online course environment design, the pilot courses' evaluation showed that improvements had to be made in this area. Professors offering Web based courses were required to take workshops on the design, offering and evaluation of online courses. This paper shows the process of transforming a higher education online course developing a virtual learning community environment. It also presents the impact of the changes on the students' perception of the course's characteristics identified as promoting its social and knowledge capital and learning.
On-orbit long-range maneuver transfer via EDAs

Long-range maneuver transfer consumes the most fuel and time of the rendezvous process, and it is a multi-variable, multi-extremum optimization problem, which is difficult to solve using traditional optimization algorithms. This paper researched the mathematical model of long-range maneuver transfer of spacecraft with impulse thrust, and optimized the parameters of orbit transfer based on a class of novel stochastic optimization algorithms, estimation of distribution algorithms (EDAs) with minimum fuel-time consumption being the optimization objective, and compared with genetic algorithms (GAs). Simulation results showed that EDAs were effective method for solving long-range maneuver transfer.
Spitzer Quasar and ULIRG Evolution Study (QUEST). I. The Origin of the Far-Infrared Continuum of QSOs

This paper addresses the origin of the far-infrared (FIR) continuum of QSOs, based on the Quasar and ULIRG Evolution Study (QUEST) of nearby QSOs and ULIRGs using observations with the Spitzer Space Telescope. For 27 Palomar-Green QSOs at z ≲ 0.3, we derive luminosities of diagnostic lines ([Ne II] 12.8 μm, [Ne V] 14.3 μm, [O IV] 25.9 μm) and emission features (PAH 7.7 μm emission, which is related to star formation), as well as continuum luminosities over a range of mid- to far-infrared wavelengths between 6 and 60 μm. We detect star-formation-related PAH emission in 11/26 QSOs and fine-structure line emission in all of them, often in multiple lines. The detection of PAHs in the average spectrum of sources that lack individual PAH detections provides further evidence for the widespread presence of PAHs in QSOs. Similar PAH/FIR and [Ne II]/FIR ratios are found in QSOs and in starburst-dominated ULIRGs and lower luminosity starbursts. We conclude that the typical QSO in our sample has at least 30% but likely most of the far-infrared luminosity (~1010-1012 L☉) arising from star formation, with a tendency for larger star formation contribution at the largest FIR luminosities. In the QSO sample, we find correlations between most of the quantities studied including combinations of AGN tracers and starburst tracers. The common scaling of AGN and starburst luminosities (and fluxes) is evidence for a starburst-AGN connection in luminous AGN. Strong correlations of far-infrared continuum and starburst related quantities (PAH, low-excitation [Ne II]) offer additional support for the starburst origin of far-infrared emission.
Attenuated mRNA expression of inflammatory mediators in neonatal rat lung following lipopolysaccharide treatment

Neonates are known to exhibit increased susceptibility to bacterial and viral infections and increasing evidence demonstrates that the increased susceptibility is related to their attenuated immune response to infections. The lung is equipped with an innate defense system involving both cellular and humoral mediators. The present study was performed to characterize the expression of inflammatory mediators in the lung of neonatal rats in comparison with older animals. Rats at postnatal day 1 (P1), P21, and P70 were treated with saline or 0.25 mg/kg lipopolysaccharide (LPS) via intraperitoneal injection. Two hours later, animals were sacrificed and the transcriptional response of key inflammatory mediators and enzyme activity of myeloperoxidase (MPO) in the lung of these animals were examined. LPS-induced messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, namely interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α, antiinflammatory cytokines, namely IL-10 and IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra), and chemokines, namely macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP)-1β, MIP-2, and monocyte chemotactic protein-1, in P1 lung was much reduced compared to that in P21 and P70 animals at 2 hours postinjection. These data suggest that LPS-induced transcriptional response of cytokines and chemokines was much reduced in P1 lung even though the protein levels of these genes were not ascertained and mRNA levels of these genes may not reflect their final protein levels. MPO activity in LPS-treated P1 lung was also significantly attenuated compared to that in LPS-treated P70 lung, suggesting impaired neutrophil infiltration in P1 lung at 2 hours following LPS treatment. In parallel, the baseline mRNA expression of LPS-binding protein (LBP) in P1 lung was much lower than that in P21 and P70 lungs. While the protein level of LBP was not examined and the mRNA level of LBP may not reflect its final protein level, the reduced transcriptional response of cytokines and chemokines in P1 lung at 2 hours following LPS treatment may be attributed to lower LBP expression in P1 lung as compared to P21 and P70 lungs.
Genetic and biochemical markers for Alzheimer's disease: recent developments

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder of unknown aetiology, characterized by irreversible cognitive and physical deterioration. It is a major cause of morbidity and death in the elderly and a growing public health problem as life expectancy in the general population increases. AD is both genetically and phenotypically a heterogeneous disorder. An early-onset, familial type is recognized, as well as a later-onset, sporadic type. The diagnosis is made on clinical grounds, with the aid of a small number of additional investigations, using consensus criteria. 1 However, at autopsy about 10± 20% of clinically diagnosed AD patients are found to have conditions other than AD. Therefore, genetic and/or biochemical markers that support the clinical diagnosis and can distinguish AD from cognitive symptoms attributable to ageing and from other dementias will be of great value. The identi® cation of such accurate markers for the early diagnosis of AD is mandatory for the development of ef® cient pharmacological treatment, since therapy should be initiated at an early stage of the disease, before extensive and irreversible brain damage has occurred.
I/O Buffer Cache Mechanism Based on the Frequency of File Usage

Most operating systems manage buffer caches for buffering I/O blocks, because I/O processing is slower than CPU processing. Application programs request I/O processing from files. In order to improve the performance of I/O processing, a buffer cache should be managed with regard to both blocks and files. This paper proposes an I/O buffer cache mechanism based on the frequency of file usage. This mechanism calculates the importance of each file. Then, blocks of important files are stored in a protected space. The blocks stored in the protected space are given priority for caching. We evaluated the proposed mechanism by kernel make processing. The results show that the proposed mechanism improves the processing time by 18 s (5.7%) as compared to the LRU algorithm.
Role-Based Information Flow Control Models

In information systems, data in an object may illegally flow into another object if a subject manipulates the objects. In this paper, we discuss information flow control models to prevent illegal information to occur in the role-based access control (RBAC) model. First, we define a legal information flow relation ri⇒ rj among roles ri and rj. It means, if a subject granted the role ri manipulates objects before another subject granted the role rj, no illegal information flow occur. We discuss safe systems where no illegal information flow occur even if operations from different subjects are performed in any order. Then, we discuss a role-based synchronization (RBS) protocol and an object-based synchronization (OBS) protocol to prevent illegal information flow in unsafe systems. Here, a transaction is aborted if the transaction reads an object and illegal information flow might occur. In the RBS protocol, the illegal information flow condition is specified in terms of roles while objects in the OBS protocol. We evaluate the RBS and OBS protocols in terms of number of transactions aborted.
Polymyalgia rheumatica-like syndrome from checkpoint inhibitor therapy: case series and systematic review of the literature

Objective To assess whether the polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR)-like syndrome reported as an immune related adverse event (irAE) from checkpoint inhibitor therapy is consistent with the 2012 European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR)/American College of Rheumatology (ACR) provisional criteria for PMR. Methods The cases were derived from two sources. Group 1 represents reported cases from three contributing centres. Group 2 was derived from a systematic review of the literature searching for all cases reported as PMR or PMR-like illness associated with checkpoint inhibitor therapy. Cases were assessed for the quality of reporting and then analysed to determine whether they fulfilled the 2012 EULAR/ACR provisional criteria for PMR. Results A total of 49 patients were included for analysis. Among the entire group, 37 (75%) were designated ‘complete’ indicating that they had sufficient data to reliably apply the 2012 EULAR/ACR criteria. 28 (75%) cases fulfilled complete criteria for PMR. A number of cases also demonstrated some clinical features unusual for idiopathic PMR. Conclusion This study suggests a high proportion of reported cases of checkpoint inhibitor-related PMR fulfil preliminary criteria for PMR, yet in one quarter clinical details were incomplete making verification problematic. Furthermore, in the absence of a gold standard for the diagnosis of PMR, the relationship of checkpoint inhibitor-related PMR to the idiopathic form remains unclear.