Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Loss-induced suppression and revival of lasing

Controlling and reversing the effects of loss are major challenges in optical systems. For lasers, losses need to be overcome by a sufficient amount of gain to reach the lasing threshold. In this work, we show how to turn losses into gain by steering the parameters of a system to the vicinity of an exceptional point (EP), which occurs when the eigenvalues and the corresponding eigenstates of a system coalesce. In our system of coupled microresonators, EPs are manifested as the loss-induced suppression and revival of lasing. Below a critical value, adding loss annihilates an existing Raman laser. Beyond this critical threshold, lasing recovers despite the increasing loss, in stark contrast to what would be expected from conventional laser theory. Our results exemplify the counterintuitive features of EPs and present an innovative method for reversing the effect of loss. Introducing loss into a coupled optical system can result in an enhancement of the optical properties. [Also see Perspective by Schwefel] Achieving gain despite increasing loss When energy is pumped into an optically active material, the buildup (or gain) of excitations within the material can reach a critical point where the emission of coherent light, or lasing, can occur. In many systems, however, the buildup of the excitations is suppressed by losses within the material. Overturning conventional wisdom that loss is bad and should be minimized, Peng et al. show that carefully tweaking the coupling strength between the various components of a coupled optical system can actually result in an enhancement of the optical properties by adding more loss into the system (see the Perspective by Schwefel). The results may provide a clever design approach to counteract loss in optical devices. Science, this issue p. 328; see also p. 304
Effects of ethynylestradiol on the reproductive physiology in zebrafish (Danio rerio): Time dependency and reversibility

Environmental pollution with natural or synthetic estrogens may pose a serious threat to reproduction of wildlife species. This study describes the effects of 17‐α‐ethynylestradiol (EE2) on fish reproductive organs in a laboratory model. Adult zebrafish were semistatically exposed to nominal concentrations of 0, 10, and 25 ng/L EE2 for 24 d and then transferred to EE2‐free medium. Gonadosomatic index (GSI), plasma vitellogenin concentration (VTG), and histology of the gonads (control and 10 ng/L only) were examined as a function of time. It was found that EE2 has an adverse impact on both male and female reproductive organs. Notably in females, gonadal changes were observed through histological evaluation after 3 d of exposure to 10 ng/L EE2, and this was followed by a reduction of GSI at day 6 of exposure. In males, a reduction of GSI and altered testis histology was found after 24 d of exposure to 10 ng/L. The observed effects on the ovary after EE2 exposure, combined with complete recovery after 24 d, is considered to be triggered by feedback at the level of the pituitary. In both males and females, VTG was induced in response to EE2 and normalized during the recovery period. The observed correlation between VTG and ovarian somatic index (OSI) demonstrates that excessive VTG induction may be predictive for adverse effects of EE2 on ovarian function in female zebrafish. These results indicate that long‐term stimulation by synthetic estrogens such as EE2 might impair reproductive function in zebrafish in a reversible manner.
Effect of winter oral vitamin D3 supplementation on cardiovascular risk factors in elderly adults.

OBJECTIVE A possible role for vitamin D deficiency in contributing to the winter increase in cardiovascular disease mortality was investigated by testing the effect of vitamin D supplementation on blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk factors during winter. DESIGN Randomised double-blind trial of vitamin D supplementation in winter. SUBJECTS Men and women, mean age 70 years (range 63-76) recruited from general practitioner age-sex registers in Cambridge (UK). INTERVENTION 95 people received a single oral dose of 2.5 mg cholecalciferol and 94 received the placebo at baseline interviews during December 1991. Follow-up assessment was 5 weeks later during January 1992. RESULTS Comparing follow-up with baseline assessment, serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D increased in the treated group and decreased slightly in the placebo group [mean (s.d.) change: 7.2 (+/- 3.8) vs -1.4 (+/- 1.1) ng/ml, P = 0.0001]; while parathyroid hormone decreased in the treated, and increased in the placebo, group [-0.27 (+/- 0.78) vs 0.13 (+/- 0.75) pmol/l, P = 0.0004]. However, the mean change in blood pressure was similar in both groups: systolic -5 (+/- 13) vs -5 (+/- 16) mmHg, P = 0.81; diastolic -1 (+/- 9) vs -1 (+/- 9), P = 0.92; as was the mean change in serum cholesterol [-0.07 (+/- 0.52) vs -0.05 (+/- 0.60) mmol/l, P = 0.81]. In contrast, the mean change in radial pulse was significantly decreased in the treated group compared with placebo [-2 (+/- 9) vs 1 (+/- 7) beats per min, P = 0.030]. CONCLUSIONS The failure of vitamin D supplementation to change blood pressure or serum cholesterol suggests that the winter increase in these factors is not caused by decreased vitamin D levels.
The Search for Domestic Bliss: Marriage and Family Counseling in 20th-Century America

Why are Americans so bad at marriage? It's certainly not for lack of trying. By the early 21st century Americans were spending billions on marriage and family counseling, seeking advice and guidance from some 50,000 experts. And yet, the divorce rate suggests that all of this therapeutic intervention isn't making couples happier or marriages more durable. Quite the contrary, Ian Dowbiggin tells us in this thought-provoking book: the "caring industry" is part of the problem. Under the influence of therapeutic reformers, marital and familial dynamics in this country have shifted from mores and commitment to love and companionship. This movement toward a "me marriage," as the "New York Times" has termed it, with its attendant soaring expectations and acute dissatisfactions, is rooted as much in the twists and turns of 20th-century history as it is in the realities in the hearts and minds of modern Americans, Dowbiggin argues; and his book reveals how effectively those changes have been encouraged and orchestrated by a small but resourceful group of social reformers with ties to eugenics, birth control, population control, and sex education. In "The Search for Domestic Bliss," Dowbiggin delves into the stories of the usual suspects in the founding of the therapeutic gospel, exposing little known aspects of their influence and misunderstood features of their work. Here we learn, for instance, that Betty Friedan did not after all discover "the problem that knows no name" the widespread unhappiness of women in mid-century America; and that, like Friedan, one of the pioneers of marriage counseling was an open admirer of Stalin's Russia. The book also explores the long overlooked impact of sex researchers Alfred Kinsey and Masters and Johnson on the development of marriage and family counseling; and considers the under-appreciated contributions to the marriage counseling movement of social reformer and activist Emily Mudd. Through these and other reform-minded Americans, Dowbiggin traces the concerted and deliberate way in which the old order of looking to family and community for guidance gave way to seeking guidance from marriage and family counseling professionals. Such a transformation, as this book makes clear, has been a key part of a major revolution in the way Americans think about their inner selves and their relations with friends, family, and community members a revolution in which once deeply private concerns have been redefined as grave matters of public mental health. "
Measles Immunization Coverage Determined by Serology and Immunization Record from Children in Two Chicago Communities

Objectives. We compared the prevalence of measles immunization determined by serology with the prevalence of measles immunization determined by immunization records, and identified factors predictive of measles immunization among a sample of children from two Chicago communities. Methods. We collected demographic information and blood specimens from a sample of children aged 12–71 months in two Chicago communities at risk for low measles immunization coverage levels. We collected immunization information from provider records, parent-held records, and the statewide immunization registry. We compared evidence of immunization determined by serology with evidence of immunization from these three sources of immunization records. Results. The sample of children from the two communities had serologic measles immunity levels of 85% and 90%. Significantly fewer children had evidence of immunization by record in both communities (45% and 63%, respectively). Conclusions. Immunization coverage levels determined using immunization records were significantly lower than immunization coverage determined using serology. A fully populated immunization registry used by all immunization providers could prevent the problems of record loss and scatter.
User control and direction of a more efficient simplifier in ACL2

We present an efficient term simplifier written in ACL2 and interfaced with ACL2 as an untrusted clause processor. We also demonstrate how an advanced user can extend this simplifier in a sound manner by proving rewrite rules with special annotations and programmed constraints on their application. For problems requiring extensive case analysis, the simplifier is more efficient than ACL2 built-in simplification and we demonstrate this on some relevant examples. In addition, we discuss the issue of user control over predictable simplification and conclude the paper with the proposed implementation of invariant discovery using the simplifier.
Unusual Clinical Presentation of Tuberless Tuberous Sclerosis Complex

Cortical tubers are the hallmark of tuberous sclerosis. Their presence is expected on brain imaging, especially when seizures begin before 1 year of age with concomitant significant developmental delay. Increased tuber counts have been reported to be associated with seizures and poor cognitive outcome. We present a 3-year-old girl with intractable seizures that started as infantile spasms at 2 months of age and who was diagnosed with clinically definitive tuberous sclerosis. Poor prognostic signs included multiple seizure types, seizure onset before 1 year of age, and multifocal electroencephalographic abnormalities. However, on repeated brain magnetic resonance imaging scans, the known radiological findings associated with tuberous sclerosis complex were absent, raising a diagnostic dilemma. Therefore, genetic analysis was performed. A mutation was detected in the TSC2 gene, confirming the diagnosis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of tuberless tuberous sclerosis complex associated with intractable epilepsy and developmental delay.
Sound patterns of Australian languages

[Extract] At the beginning of his seminal review of the phonological characteristics of Australian languages, Evans (1995a: 723) refers to the "classical period" in the description of Australian language sound systems from the late sixties to the early eighties e.g. Capell 1967, Dixon 1980, Blake 1981, Yallop 1982). A definitive summary of Australian sound systems is also included in Dixon (2002: Ch 12). From this body of work has emerged a general picture of some of the hallmark traits of Australian language sound patterns. Some of the key features of Australian languages are that they have complex consonant inventories with multiple place of articulation contrasts in the stop and sonorant series, a notable lack of contrastive fricatives or a stop voicing contrast, coupled with small vowel inventories (e.g. see also Capell 1967; Yallop 1982; Blake 1981). In the last twenty years, research largely undertaken within the segmental descriptive tradition, has been augmented with a growing body of experimental phonetic analysis that has looked at a range of phonological and phonetic phenomena ranging from the acoustic features of vowel inventories to intonation. This chapter aims to introduce the reader to some of the salient phonetic and phonological features of Australian languages, beginning with an overview of segmental properties, and finishing with a survey of connected speech processes, stress and prosodic prominence, and intonational phenomena. While most phonetic and phonological interest has focused on the characteristics of the consonant inventories and metrical stress patterns, a range of newer analyses have been conducted on hitherto neglected features of Australian languages, namely the vowel inventories, consonant coarticulation, and aspects of post-lexical phonetics and phonology, including intonation, rhythm and other temporal patterns such as pausing and tempo variation. The results of these studies are summarised in the sections that follow.
Reason and Feeling in Hume's Action Theory and Moral Philosophy

Part 1 Hume's antirationalism: the main antirationalist argument the "two-kinds-of-reasoning" argument the challenge from practical reason the slave metaphor the "no-representative-quality" argument the three mad preferences. Part 2 Hume's theory of motivation, part 1 -prudential motivation: the calm-passions argument, Stroud's and Nagel's non-experimental accounts of motivating desires motives as dispositions to have desire-experiences reinterpreting Hume on the calm passions. Part 3 Hume's theory of motivation, part 2 - moral motivation: the strip-down argument letting passions in by the back door the authority of moral requirements Smith's view further support for the counter-example argument. Part 4 Hume's moral sentimentalism: feeling as essential to moral judgement the problem of interpreting Hume's sentimentalism Stroud's solution - the projection theory my solution -the power account the autobiographical element conclusion -implications for practical ethics.
Accumulation of Werner protein at DNA double-strand breaks in human cells

Werner syndrome is an autosomal recessive accelerated-aging disorder caused by a defect in the WRN gene, which encodes a member of the RecQ family of DNA helicases with an exonuclease activity. In vitro experiments have suggested that WRN functions in several DNA repair processes, but the actual functions of WRN in living cells remain unknown. Here, we analyzed the kinetics of the intranuclear mobilization of WRN protein in response to a variety of types of DNA damage produced locally in the nucleus of human cells. A striking accumulation of WRN was observed at laser-induced double-strand breaks, but not at single-strand breaks or oxidative base damage. The accumulation of WRN at double-strand breaks was rapid, persisted for many hours, and occurred in the absence of several known interacting proteins including polymerase β, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase 1 (PARP1), Ku80, DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PKcs), NBS1 and histone H2AX. Abolition of helicase activity or deletion of the exonuclease domain had no effect on accumulation, whereas the presence of the HRDC (helicase and RNaseD C-terminal) domain was necessary and sufficient for the accumulation. Our data suggest that WRN functions mainly at DNA double-strand breaks and structures resembling double-strand breaks in living cells, and that an autonomous accumulation through the HRDC domain is the initial response of WRN to the double-strand breaks.
DOMAIN-SPECIFIC AND DOMAIN-GENERAL INFLUENCES ON EARLY MATHEMATICAL SKILLS: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

Two domain-specific quantity systems have been proposed; the “Precise Number System” for small precise numerical representations, and the “Approximate Number System” for imprecise numerical representations (Feigenson, Dehaene, & Spelke, 2004). The efficiency of these systems has been individually associated with numerical competence (Mazzocco, Feigenson, & Halberda, 2011; Schleifer & Landerl, 2011). Phonological awareness and VSSP functioning are domain-general cognitive skills which have been shown to contribute to distinct aspects of early numerical competence (Krajewski & Schneider, 2009; LeFevre et al., 2010). Krajewski and Schneider’s model (2009) proposes three distinct developmental levels of early number skills; phonological awareness contributes to basic verbal number skills (Level I) while VSSP functioning and quantitative skills contribute to quantity to number-word linkage (Level II) and to early arithmetic skills (Level III). This thesis examines the longitudinal and independent contributions that domain-specific and domain-general cognitive skills make to early number skills and to two standardised mathematical attainment measures. Verbal, visuo-spatial and quantitative skills were assessed in 129 children at the start of Reception Year. Precise quantity discrimination skills predicted performance and growth in children’s ability to count objects (Level II), approximate quantity discrimination skills predicted performance and growth in reciting the number-word sequence (Level I) and the two domain-general cognitive skills predicted performance and growth in performing simple arithmetic skills (Level III) over an eighteen-month period. Also, approximate quantity discrimination skills, phonological awareness and VSSP functioning predicted performance in both mathematical attainment measures over a six-month period. However VSSP functioning predicted performance and growth in a specific mathematical attainment measure over an eighteen-month period. Each cognitive skill seems to have a circumscribed role as a precursor of specific later number skills. This suggests that identifying deficits in these cognitive skills and designing targeted-intervention programmes for children in the very early stages of schooling could prevent later general mathematical deficits.
Effect of Pimobendan in Dogs with Preclinical Myxomatous Mitral Valve Disease and Cardiomegaly: The EPIC Study—A Randomized Clinical Trial

Background Pimobendan is effective in treatment of dogs with congestive heart failure (CHF) secondary to myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD). Its effect on dogs before the onset of CHF is unknown. Hypothesis/Objectives Administration of pimobendan (0.4–0.6 mg/kg/d in divided doses) to dogs with increased heart size secondary to preclinical MMVD, not receiving other cardiovascular medications, will delay the onset of signs of CHF, cardiac‐related death, or euthanasia. Animals 360 client‐owned dogs with MMVD with left atrial‐to‐aortic ratio ≥1.6, normalized left ventricular internal diameter in diastole ≥1.7, and vertebral heart sum >10.5. Methods Prospective, randomized, placebo‐controlled, blinded, multicenter clinical trial. Primary outcome variable was time to a composite of the onset of CHF, cardiac‐related death, or euthanasia. Results Median time to primary endpoint was 1228 days (95% CI: 856–NA) in the pimobendan group and 766 days (95% CI: 667–875) in the placebo group (P = .0038). Hazard ratio for the pimobendan group was 0.64 (95% CI: 0.47–0.87) compared with the placebo group. The benefit persisted after adjustment for other variables. Adverse events were not different between treatment groups. Dogs in the pimobendan group lived longer (median survival time was 1059 days (95% CI: 952–NA) in the pimobendan group and 902 days (95% CI: 747–1061) in the placebo group) (P = .012). Conclusions and Clinical Importance Administration of pimobendan to dogs with MMVD and echocardiographic and radiographic evidence of cardiomegaly results in prolongation of preclinical period and is safe and well tolerated. Prolongation of preclinical period by approximately 15 months represents substantial clinical benefit.
Design of an electrically small antenna using a broadside-coupled split ring resonator

An electrically small planar antenna using a broadside-coupled split ring resonator (BC-SRR) with a simple structure is presented. Due to the capacitance between the two SRRs in the BC-SRR, the resonant frequency of the antenna is lowered without increasing the size of the antenna. The proposed antenna resonates at 2.45 GHz and 7.31 GHz. At 2.45 GHz, the dimension of the SRR in the proposed antenna is as small as 0. 012λ<inf>0</inf>× 0. 082λ<inf>0</inf>, where λ<inf>0</inf> is the wavelength in vacuum. The radiation efficiency is 24% at 2.45 GHz.
Versatile interactions at interfaces for SPH-based simulations

The realistic capture of various interactions at interfaces is a challenging problem for SPH-based simulation. Previous works have mainly considered a single type of interaction, while real-world phenomena typically exhibit multiple interactions at different interfaces. For instance, when cracking an egg, there are simultaneous interactions between air, egg white, egg yolk, and the shell. To conveniently handle all interactions simultaneously in a single simulation, a versatile approach is critical. In this paper, we present a new approach to the surface tension model based on pairwise interaction forces; its basis is to use a larger number of neighboring particles. Our model is stable, conserves momentum, and furthermore, prevents the particle clustering problem which commonly occurs at the free surface. It can be applied to simultaneous interactions at multiple interfaces (e.g. fluid-solid and fluid-fluid). Our method is versatile, physically plausible and easy-to-implement. We also consider the close connection between droplets and bubbles, and show how to animate bubbles in air as droplets, with the help of a new surface particle detection method. Examples are provided to demonstrate the capabilities and effectiveness of our approach.
Electronic Quality Measurement Predicts Outcomes in Community Acquired Pneumonia

Using electronic medical data, we calculated emergency department physician performance and subsequent outcomes on a measure used in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Physician Quality Reporting System. The measure assesses use of guideline recommended antibiotics for community acquired pneumonia. Physicians met measure criteria in 70.6% of cases at one institution. Among patients admitted to the hospital, measure compliant cases had a significantly shorter length of stay, lower costs and lower intensive care utilization than measure failures. For measure failures admitted to the hospital, antibiotic treatment was adjusted to be measure compliant within 48 hours in 57.1% of cases. Use of electronic performance measurement for antibiotic treatment of community acquired pneumonia identified variations in physician performance. Measure compliance correlated with significantly improved patient outcomes and lower costs.
Experiential perspectives on road congestions

Commuting can be perceived as both 'relaxing' and 'stressful'. An important cause for stress is getting stuck in traffic, which can especially when unexpected quickly turn commuting into a negative experience, often associated with frustration and the feeling of wasting time. Congestion experiences do not need to be frustrating and annoying. In our research, we aim to generate design solutions for turning the negative experiences into positive ones. We foster the experiential perspective on road congestions, and go beyond current automotive HCI research, which mainly focuses on safety, functionality, and usability. In this paper, we present our work-in progress on characterizing congestion experiences and needs, explored in a design workshop outlining future design directions for supporting positive experiences.