Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Interactive Effects of Herbivory and Mixed Mating for the Population Dynamics of Impatiens capensis

In this study, we examine the demographic consequences of mixed mating and explore the interactive effects of vegetative herbivory and mating system for population dynamics of Impatiens capensis, a species with an obligate mixed mating system (i.e., individuals produce both obligately selfing cleistogamous and facultatively outcrossing chasmogamous flowers). In two natural populations, we followed seeds derived from cleistogamous and chasmogamous flowers subject to different herbivory levels throughout their life cycle. Using a mating system–explicit projection matrix model, we found that mating system types differed in important vital rates. Cleistogamous individuals had higher rates of germination than did chasmogamous individuals, whereas chasmogamous individuals expressed a fecundity advantage over cleistogamous individuals. In addition, population growth was most sensitive to changes in vital rates of cleistogamous individuals, indicating the demographic importance of selfing for these populations. Herbivory also had demographic consequences; a 33%–49% reduction in herbivory caused the population growth rates to increase by 104%–132%, primarily because of effects on vital rates of selfed individuals. Our results not only uncover a novel consequence of mating system expression, that is, mating system influences population dynamics, but also shed light on the role of herbivores in maintaining mixed mating.
Scheme-Based Systematic Exploration of Natural Numbers

In this paper, we report a case study of computer supported exploration of the theory of natural numbers, using a theory exploration model based on knowledge schemes, proposed by Bruno Buchberger. We illustrate with examples from the exploration: (i) the invention of new concepts (functions, relations) in the theory, using knowledge scheme;, (ii) the invention of new propositions, using proposition schemes; (iii) the invention of problems, using knowledge schemes; (iv) the introduction of new reasoning rules, by lifting knowledge to the inference level, after their correctness was proved
A note on distance-based geolocation in wireless sensor networks

Location awareness is important in many wireless sensor networks. In sensor networks because of the size, weight, battery life and price some nodes (eg, GPS-equipped nodes) are self-located but all other nodes have to determine their locations by communication with location-aware neighbors. The common method used for location determination is triangulation/lateration (referred to as 3-NA) which determines the location of a node by communication with 3 neighbors. Last year Barbeau et al proposed an improvement of 3-NA that could determine the location of a node in certain circumstances even if only two neighbors exist. The improved algorithm is called 3/2-NA by the authors. By their simulations (without theoretical analyses) they showed that for sparse sensor networks 3-NA and 3/2-NA could increase the number of location-aware nodes by up to 33% and 8% respectively. We studied the same problem and found that under the same setting our simulation results were different from Barbeau et al's. In this paper we do theoretical analyses of 3-NA and 3/2-NA, and the analyses well match our simulation results.
Compressive sensing based ECG monitoring with effective AF detection

Atrial fibrillation (AF) patients need long-term electrocardiography (ECG) monitoring to detect occurrence of AF. We can acquire ECG signals under low power by compressive sensing based sensor and detect AF by existing algorithms. However, the compression ratio of AF signal is low when DWT basis is applied for CS reconstruction. On the other hand the complexity of AF detection algorithms is high. In this paper, we propose a CS-based ECG monitoring system with effective AF detection. We exploit dictionary learning to improve 2.5× better compression ratio than existing works. With built-in AF detection, we can detect AF with 96.0% sensitivity and 97.2% specificity from highly compressed data, without any complex detection algorithm.
The Vitamin D Status in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Context There is no consensus on the vitamin D status of children and adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Aim To determine the vitamin D status of patients with IBD by comparing their serum 25(OH)D concentration to that of healthy controls. Hypothesis Serum 25(OH)D concentration will be lower in patients with IBD compared to controls. Subjects and Methods A case-controlled retrospective study of subjects with IBD (n = 58) of 2–20 years (male n = 31, age 16.38±2.21 years; female n = 27, age16.56±2.08 years) and healthy controls (n = 116; male n = 49, age 13.90±4.59 years; female n = 67, age 15.04±4.12years). Study subject inclusion criteria: diagnosis of Crohn’s disease (CD) or ulcerative colitis (UC). Vitamin D deficiency was defined as 25(OH)D of (<20 ng/mL) (<50 nmol/L), overweight as BMI of ≥85th but <95th percentile, and obesity as BMI ≥95th percentile. Data were expressed as mean ± SD. Results Patients with CD, UC, and their controls had mean serum 25(OH)D concentrations of 61.69±24.43 nmol/L, 53.26±25.51, and 65.32±27.97 respectively (ANOVA, p = 0.196). The overweight/obese controls had significantly lower 25(OH)D concentration compared to the normal-weight controls (p = 0.031); whereas 25(OH)D concentration was similar between the normal-weight and overweight/obese IBD patients (p = 0.883). There was no difference in 25(OH)D between patients with UC and CD, or between subjects with active IBD and controls. However, IBD subjects with elevated ESR had significantly lower 25(OH)D than IBD subjects with normal ESR (p = 0.025), as well as controls (65.3±28.0 nmol/L vs. 49.5±25.23, p = 0.045). Conclusion There is no difference in mean serum 25(OH)D concentration between children and adolescents with IBD and controls. However, IBD subjects with elevated ESR have significantly lower 25(OH)D than controls. Therefore, IBD subjects with elevated ESR should be monitored for vitamin D deficiency.
Sex differences in anogenital distances and digit ratios in wild David's rock squirrels Sciurotamias davidianus

The prenatal hormonal environment plays an important role in organizing sex differences in the morphology, physi- ology and behavior of humans as well as other vertebrates. Currently, all related research on rodents has been focused on Myo- morpha. This study presents data on sex differences in the anogenital distance (AGD) and the ratio of the second to the fourth digit length (2D:4D) from 44 wild David's rock squirrels Sciurotamias davidianus captured from the Qinling Mountains, China. This was the first study of a species from Sciuromorpha. The AGD as well as body mass are sexually dimorphic. There are no sex differences or lateral asymmetry in 2D:4D. Significant correlation was not found between AGD and 2D:4D for any paw. The findings indicate that 2D:4D may not be fixed or influenced by the prenatal steroidal environment in David's rock squirrels (Cur- rent Zoology 60 (2): 180-185, 2014).
Efficacy of Alveolar Vertical Distraction Osteogenesis and Autogenous Bone Grafting for Dental Implants: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of alveolar vertical distraction osteogenesis and autogenous bone grafting in terms of bone gain, bone resorption, and implant survival and success rates and investigate the relationship between bone gain and resorption after alveolar vertical distraction osteogenesis. MATERIALS AND METHODS A systematic search was done using MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, and KoreaMed from inception to April 30, 2014. Supplementary manual searches of published full-text articles were also performed. RESULTS Searches of four electronic databases and manual searches resulted in 1,538 articles. After selection, four studies were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis. The difference in bone gain at the end of distraction or bone grafting was statistically significant (weighted mean difference [WMD] 1.86, 95% CI 0.03 to 3.69, P = .05; heterogeneity: I(2) = 78%, P = . 01). However, there was not a statistically significant difference between alveolar distraction osteogenesis and onlay bone grafting (WMD 0.30, 95% CI -0.99 to 1.59, P = .065). Bone resorption between the end of treatment and the time of implant placement was not statistically significant (WMD -0.12, 95% CI -1.10 to 0.85, P = .80; heterogeneity: I(2) = 78%, P = . 01). A simple equation related to bone gain and resorption after alveolar vertical distraction was induced from these results. CONCLUSION There was not a statistically significant difference between alveolar distraction osteogenesis and onlay bone grafting in terms of bone gain and bone resorption.
Breaking the Small Cluster Barrier of Graph Clustering

This paper investigates graph clustering in the planted cluster model in the presence of small clusters. Traditional results dictate that for an algorithm to provably correctly recover the clusters, all clusters must be sufficiently large (in particular, Ω(√n) where n is the number of nodes of the graph). We show that this is not really a restriction: by a more refined analysis of the trace-norm based matrix recovery approach proposed in Jalali et al. (2011) and Chen et al. (2012), we prove that small clusters, under certain mild assumptions, do not hinder recovery of large ones. Based on this result, we further devise an iterative algorithm to recover almost all clusters via a "peeling strategy", i.e., recover large clusters first, leading to a reduced problem, and repeat this procedure. These results are extended to the partial observation setting, in which only a (chosen) part of the graph is observed. The peeling strategy gives rise to an active learning algorithm, in which edges adjacent to smaller clusters are queried more often as large clusters are learned (and removed). From a high level, this paper sheds novel insights on high-dimensional statistics and learning structured data, by presenting a structured matrix learning problem for which a one shot convex relaxation approach necessarily fails, but a carefully constructed sequence of convex relaxations does the job.
Conformal electronics for longitudinal bio-sensing in at-home assistive and rehabilitative devices

Wearable electronics are revolutionizing personalized and preventative healthcare by allowing the easy, unobtrusive, and long term monitoring of a range of body parameters. Conformal electronics which attach directly to the skin in a very robust and long term manner are envisioned as the next generation of highly portable miniaturized computing devices, beyond wearables. In this paper we overview the state-of-the-art in conformal electronics created using silver nanoparticle inkjet printed techniques for home assistive and rehabilitative devices. The barriers to wider adaption, particularly the challenges of high performance antenna design when placed close to the body, are discussed in detail.
Regulated production of SnoN2 is a feature of testicular differentiation

Transforming growth factor betas (TGFβs) and activins are key regulators of male fertility, affecting somatic and germ cell proliferation and differentiation in the developing and adult testis. Several studies have shown that these ligands influence discrete developmental stages, suggesting that temporal expression of modifying factors may determine their specific signaling outcomes. Upon binding to cell surface receptors, TGFβ and activin signals are transduced intracellularly by the phosphorylation and nuclear accumulation of SMAD2 and SMAD3 transcription factors. The objective of this study was to determine the cellular localization of phosphorylated SMAD2/3 and the transcriptional repressor SnoN (Ski‐like), a modifier of SMAD2/3 transcriptional activity, in mouse testes. Western blot established that only the smaller SnoN isoform, SnoN2, is produced in the testis. By immunohistochemistry, widespread phospho‐SMAD2/3 distribution was observed in somatic and germ cells at all ages. In contrast, SnoN2 production was highly regulated, being detected only in gonocytes and interstitial cells at birth and in pachytene spermatocytes at puberty. In the adult, SnoN2 expression differed to that during the first wave, being ubiquitously expressed but exhibiting regulated nuclear localization. In another model of spermatogenic differentiation, the irradiated rat testis, widespread phospho‐SMAD2/3 contrasted with restricted SnoN2 expression. SnoN2 was limited to interstitial cells, with reduced staining intensity observed associated with the timing of spermatogenesis resumption. We conclude that somatic and germ cells at all differentiation stages are actively transducing TGFβ superfamily signals but that responses to these ligands may be selectively modulated by controlled production and nuclear localization of SnoN2. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Dependence of solar cell contact resistivity measurements on sample preparation methods

The measurement of contact resistivity between the grid metallization of a solar cell and the underlying silicon wafer is most conveniently performed by cutting strips from solar cells rather than fabricating dedicated structures with variable spaced contacts. We studied the effect of strip width on the measurements and found the lowest values in the range of 10-15 mm. We found laser scribing conditions whereby strips could be successfully isolated on the emitter side without snapping strips from the rest of the cell.
What's on your mind?: investigating recommendations for inclusive social networking and older adults

Social networking sites (SNSs) are becoming increasingly popular as a method for social interaction. While research has reported benefits associated with components of SNS usage, a digital divide has emerged between younger and older users. SNSs can be useful for communicating with family members and helping one feel digitally included; however, there are a wide range of reasons why many older adults choose not to use this kind of technology. We present a series of user studies investigating the barriers and challenges that SNSs can present to older users. These user studies led to the derivation of user recommendations to mitigate these barriers. The recommendations were then evaluated within a comparative evaluation which involved 25 older adults completing tasks on two interface versions of a simulation SNS. We present the recommendations and the methods of their creation and evaluation. Implications for developers of SNSs are discussed.
Searching for simplicity : Approaches to the analysis of neurons and behavior

What fascinates us about animal behavior is its richness and complexity, but understanding behavior and its neural basis requires a simpler description. Traditionally, simplification has been imposed by training animals to engage in a limited set of behaviors, by hand scoring behaviors into discrete classes, or by limiting the sensory experience of the organism. An alternative is to ask whether we can search through the dynamics of natural behaviors to find explicit evidence that these behaviors are simpler than they might have been. We review two mathematical approaches to simplification, dimensionality reduction and the maximum entropy method, and we draw on examples from different levels of biological organization, from the crawling behavior of C. elegans to the control of smooth pursuit eye movements in primates, and from the coding of natural scenes by networks of neurons in the retina to the rules of English spelling. In each case, we argue that the explicit search for simplicity uncovers new and unexpected features of the biological system, and that the evidence for simplification gives us a language with which to phrase new questions for the next generation of experiments. The fact that similar mathematical structures succeed in taming the complexity of very different biological systems hints that there is something more general to be discovered.
Computational Depth of Anesthesia via Multiple Vital Signs Based on Artificial Neural Networks

This study evaluated the depth of anesthesia (DoA) index using artificial neural networks (ANN) which is performed as the modeling technique. Totally 63-patient data is addressed, for both modeling and testing of 17 and 46 patients, respectively. The empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is utilized to purify between the electroencephalography (EEG) signal and the noise. The filtered EEG signal is subsequently extracted to achieve a sample entropy index by every 5-second signal. Then, it is combined with other mean values of vital signs, that is, electromyography (EMG), heart rate (HR), pulse, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and signal quality index (SQI) to evaluate the DoA index as the input. The 5 doctor scores are averaged to obtain an output index. The mean absolute error (MAE) is utilized as the performance evaluation. 10-fold cross-validation is performed in order to generalize the model. The ANN model is compared with the bispectral index (BIS). The results show that the ANN is able to produce lower MAE than BIS. For the correlation coefficient, ANN also has higher value than BIS tested on the 46-patient testing data. Sensitivity analysis and cross-validation method are applied in advance. The results state that EMG has the most effecting parameter, significantly.
Efficiently Extracting Randomness from Imperfect Stochastic Processes

We study the problem of extracting a prescribed number of random bits by reading the smallest possible number of symbols from non-ideal stochastic processes. The related interval algorithm proposed by Han and Hoshi has asymptotically optimal performance; however, it assumes that the distribution of the input stochastic process is known. The motivation for our work is the fact that, in practice, sources of randomness have inherent correlations and are affected by measurement's noise. Namely, it is hard to obtain an accurate estimation of the distribution. This challenge was addressed by the concepts of seeded and seedless extractors that can handle general random sources with unknown distributions. However, known seeded and seedless extractors provide extraction efficiencies that are substantially smaller than Shannon's entropy limit. Our main contribution is the design of extractors that have a variable input-length and a fixed output length, are efficient in the consumption of symbols from the source, are capable of generating random bits from general stochastic processes and approach the information theoretic upper bound on efficiency.
BSACI guidelines for the management of allergic and non‐allergic rhinitis

This guidance for the management of patients with allergic and non‐allergic rhinitis has been prepared by the Standards of Care Committee (SOCC) of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology (BSACI). The guideline is based on evidence as well as on expert opinion and is for use by both adult physicians and paediatricians practicing in allergy. The recommendations are evidence graded. During the development of these guidelines, all BSACI members were included in the consultation process using a web‐based system. Their comments and suggestions were carefully considered by the SOCC. Where evidence was lacking, consensus was reached by the experts on the committee. Included in this guideline are clinical classification of rhinitis, aetiology, diagnosis, investigations and management including subcutaneous and sublingual immunotherapy. There are also special sections for children, co‐morbid associations and pregnancy. Finally, we have made recommendations for potential areas of future research.
The Influence of Plantar Cutaneous Stimulation on a Functional Test of Gait in Parkinson’s Disease

Although possible deficits in proprioception have been implicated as a cause of gait impairments in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD), little research has been done to investigate improving this possible deficit as a method to influence mobility. The overall purpose of the current thesis was to investigate the influence of increased plantar stimulation on stability and gait impairments. This study also investigated the contribution of attention to locomotion in PD. The two studies comprising this thesis addressed the possible influence of the ribbed insoles in the initial response of PD participants as well as the long-term use of the insole. The first study focused on developing a task to assess the influence of the facilitatory insoles on gait for individuals with PD compared to healthy control participants. For the purpose of evaluating the facilitatory insoles in a functionally relevant task participants performed a modified "Timed Up and Go" task with an additional secondary motor task. The secondary task of carrying a tray with glasses demonstrated that attention plays a large role in the production and maintenance of gait as gait deficits became more pronounced. However, the facilitatory insoles also influenced gait parameters which demonstrated that the possible deficits in proprioception contribute to the gait impairments in PD. The initial response to the insoles, in the first study, did not improve gait parameters, which suggests that PD participants may need more time to adjust to the increased plantar stimulation. The second study investigated the influence of the facilitatory insoles when they are worn for a longer period of time. Participants wore either the facilitatory insoles or blank insoles while completing the PD Sensory Attention Focussed Exercise (PD SAFEx)
Review Article Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor Gamma and Regulations by the Ubiquitin-proteasome System in Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal forms of human cancer. Although progress in oncology has improved outcomes in many forms of cancer, little progress has been made in pancreatic carcinoma and the prognosis of this malignancy remains grim. Several molecular abnormalities often present in pancreatic cancer have been defined and include mutations in K-ras, p53, p16, and DPC4 genes. Nuclear receptor Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor gamma (PPARγ) has a role in many carcinomas and has been found to be overexpressed in pancreatic cancer. It plays generally a tumor suppressor role antagonizing proteins promoting carcinogenesis such as NF-κB and TGFβ. Regulation of pathways involved in pancreatic carcinogenesis is effectuated by the Ubiquitin Proteasome System (UPS). This paper will examine PPARγ in pancreatic cancer, the regulation of this nuclear receptor by the UPS, and their relationship to other pathways important in pancreatic carcinogenesis.