Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using morphometrics to identify glochidia from a diverse freshwater mussel community

Abstract We measured shell length, hinge length, and height of glochidia from 21 freshwater mussel species occurring in the Sipsey River, Alabama, to test our ability to identify species based on these glochidial morphometrics. Glochidial size and shape differed widely among species; for all 3 dimensions, mean values for the largest species were 5 to 7× greater than for the smallest species. Within-species variation in glochidia size was low for all species with the exception of Pleurobema decisum, which was represented by 2 glochidial morphotypes; variation within each morphotype was similar in magnitude to variation within other species. We were able to classify 72 to 79% of total glochidia (n = 870 or 750, respectively) to the correct species with discriminant function analysis. Percentage of correct classification ranged from 40 to 100% for individual species. Misclassifications were caused by overlap in shell dimensions between some species, but even species with poor classification success were confounded with an average of only 2.2 to 3.0 other species. Unlike previous studies, we found that glochidia of closely related species were not necessarily more similar to each other than to glochidia of more distantly related species. For example, species in the tribe Quadrulini were widely divergent in glochidium size and represented some of both the smallest and largest glochidia in our study. These 3 shell measurements and subsequent application of discriminant function analysis can be useful for identification of unknown glochidia or for rapidly narrowing the range of potential species identifications to smaller groups of species with similar glochidia.
Endothelial Cells : Antioxidative Potential of Hydroxymethylglutaryl Coenzyme a Induction of Nad(p)h Oxidase by Oxidized Low-density Lipoprotein in Human Induction of Nad(p)h Oxidase by Oxidized Low-density Lipoprotein in Human Endothelial Cells Antioxidative Potential of Hydroxymethylglutaryl Coenz

Background—Elevated oxidative stress and superoxide anion formation in vascular cells could promote conversion of LDL to atherogenic oxidized LDL (oxLDL), contributing to endothelial dysfunction and atherosclerosis. As a major source of vascular superoxide anion formation, an endothelial NAD(P)H oxidase, similar to the leukocyte enzyme, has been identified. Methods and Results—To elucidate functional differences between NAD(P)H oxidases of endothelial cells and leukocytes, DNA sequences of endothelial NAD(P)H oxidase subunits were determined. Gp91phox cDNA sequence showed no difference between the 2 cell types. Endothelial p67phox cDNA sequence revealed 2 known polymorphisms, which do not affect NAD(P)H oxidase function. Next, we analyzed relative mRNA expression of NAD(P)H subunits in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and leukocytes using a common cRNA standard in competitive reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction. NAD(P)H oxidase subunits p22phox and p47phox are expressed at a similar level in both cell types, whereas p67phox (2.5%) and gp91phox (1.1%) are expressed at a much lower level in endothelial cells than in leukocytes. Differences of gp91phox expression in leukocytes and HUVECs correlate with differences in superoxide release. Gp91phox mRNA and endothelial superoxide anion formation are induced in response to oxLDL in HUVECs. Furthermore, a lower gp91phox mRNA expression was found in internal mammary artery biopsy samples of patients with coronary artery disease treated with HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors before coronary bypass surgery. Conclusions—We conclude that oxLDL induces proatherosclerotic NAD(P)H oxidase expression and superoxide anion formation in human endothelial cells and an antioxidative potential of HMG-CoA reductase inhibition via reduction of vascular NAD(P)H oxidase expression.
Baldwin effect based self-adaptive generalized genetic algorithm

Standard genetic algorithm conducts probabilistic parallel searches for the best chromosome by repeating generate-and-test processes, which completely ignore experiences gained during individuals' lifetime. Such inborn defect, however, is fully intact under conventional improvements. In this paper, a novel self-adaptive generalized GA based on Baldwin effect is proposed. A fourth operator Baldwin learning, is introduced. All members must perform Baldwin learning before they enter into the gene pool for further crossover and mutation. Besides, mechanisms of "inbreeding is forbidden" and activation are built in to solve problems of crowding and slow convergence. Finally, the kernel of inconsistent self-adaptive GA is also fused into this new algorithm. Application to a benchmark problem shows the new algorithm is feasible and highly effective.
Application of nanomaterials in two-terminal resistive-switching memory devices

Nanometer materials have been attracting strong attention due to their interesting structure and properties. Many important practical applications have been demonstrated for nanometer materials based on their unique properties. This article provides a review on the fabrication, electrical characterization, and memory application of two-terminal resistive-switching devices using nanomaterials as the active components, including metal and semiconductor nanoparticles (NPs), nanotubes, nanowires, and graphenes. There are mainly two types of device architectures for the two-terminal devices with NPs. One has a triple-layer structure with a metal film sandwiched between two organic semiconductor layers, and the other has a single polymer film blended with NPs. These devices can be electrically switched between two states with significant different resistances, i.e. the ‘ON’ and ‘OFF’ states. These render the devices important application as two-terminal non-volatile memory devices. The electrical behavior of these devices can be affected by the materials in the active layer and the electrodes. Though the mechanism for the electrical switches has been in argument, it is generally believed that the resistive switches are related to charge storage on the NPs. Resistive switches were also observed on crossbars formed by nanotubes, nanowires, and graphene ribbons. The resistive switches are due to nanoelectromechanical behavior of the materials. The Coulombic interaction of transient charges on the nanomaterials affects the configurable gap of the crossbars, which results into significant change in current through the crossbars. These nanoelectromechanical devices can be used as fast-response and high-density memory devices as well.
In the Middle and on the Sideline: The Experience of Spouses of Men With Prostate Cancer

Background: Spouses play an important role in how well patients with prostate cancer manage their illness. Whereas earlier studies mostly included both patients and spouses, this study focuses on the spouses’ experiences during the course of the illness. Objective: The objective of this study was to explore how the daily life of female spouses is affected by their husband’s prostate cancer. Methods: Qualitative interviews were conducted with 9 spouses of men receiving potential curative treatment for prostate cancer. Results: Prostate cancer in men had significant impact on spouses’ everyday life. The results showed that spouses strived to achieve a balance between focusing on their own needs and meeting their husbands’ needs along the course of the illness. Four themes emerged: strong and optimistic versus vulnerable and overstrained, maintaining the partner’s sense of manhood, being on the sideline, and the need for relationships outside the immediate family. Conclusion: Being a spouse to a man with prostate cancer is emotionally and practically demanding. There is a danger of the spouses suppressing their own needs in the process of supporting their husbands. Those spouses living in the situation over a period of years expressed fatigue and a shift in focus from their husbands’ needs to their own needs for support. Implications for Practice: Healthcare providers should provide support for spouses during the course of the illness, encourage spouses to participate in seminars for couples living with prostate cancer, and be aware of the potential for situational fatigue in spouses many years after the diagnosis.
Ieee Transactions on Wireless Communications 1 Reduced Complexity Receivers for Layered Space-time Cpm

— Layered space-time (LST) transmissions employing continuous phase modulations (CPM) are well motivated for both bandwidth-and power-limited multi-antenna communications. However, one of the major challenges for LST-CPM is the high complexity it incurs with maximum likelihood (ML) detection. In this paper, we develop reduced complexity LST-CPM receivers. First, we consider single antenna systems. Specifically , we study a reduced complexity Viterbi receiver for binary CPM. Based on this design, we introduce differential encoding for a class of CPM signals, and analyze its performance gain both theoretically and with simulations. Second, we focus on multi-antenna LST systems with minimum shift keying (MSK) type modulations. With group nulling-canceling (NC) and low complexity linear equalization, we convert a coded multiuser detection problem into an uncoded one with small equalization loss. We also find that the combination of sphere decoding with hard-decision iterative processing is effective in boosting performance with a controllable complexity increase. Both analytical and simulated performance confirm that the novel LST-MSK receiver exhibits markedly improved performance relative to conventional NC detectors with moderate complexity increase. I. INTRODUCTION Continuous phase modulation has long been recognized to possess many desirable features for communication systems that are both bandwidth and power limited [2, 10]. Due to their phase continuity, CPM signals exhibit relatively lower spectral side lobes than signals with abrupt phase changes. Their compact spectra enable CPM signals to be efficiently multiplexed. Furthermore, CPM waveforms are constant modulus, which allows nonlinear high power amplifiers to operate efficiently. Nonetheless, CPM transmissions incur high ML decoding complexity. Many matched filters have to be implemented at the receiver front end, and Viterbi's algorithm with possibly a large number of states has to be employed. Valuable in designing simplified receivers is Lau-rent's decomposition, where binary CPM is represented by a linear superposition of a finite number of amplitude modulated pluses [8]. Laurent's decomposition was extended to
Commonsense for Making Sense of Data

In my doctoral research, I address the problem of automatically acquiring commonsense knowledge from text corpora and also from data-sets containing visuals (images, videos) along with textual descriptions. I also aim to exploit the acquired commonsense knowledge for domain-specific and domain-independent applications such as fine-grained search, retrieval and prediction, data integration and analytics using qualitative reasoning.
Bootstrapping Information Extraction from Field Books

We present two machine learning approaches to information extraction from semi-structured documents that can be used if no annotated training data are available, but there does exist a database filled with information derived from the type of documents to be processed. One approach employs standard supervised learning for information extraction by artificially constructing labelled training data from the contents of the database. The second approach combines unsupervised Hidden Markov modelling with language models. Empirical evaluation of both systems suggests that it is possible to bootstrap a field segmenter from a database alone. The combination of Hidden Markov and language modelling was found to perform best at this task.
Antibacterial Colorants: Characterization of Prodiginines and Their Applications on Textile Materials

A strain of Vibriosp. isolated from marine sediments produced large quantities of bright red pigments that could be used to dye many fibers including wool, nylon, acrylics, and silk. Characterization of the pigments by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI‐MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) revealed three prodiginine‐like structures with nonpolar characteristics and low molecular mass. UV‐visible spectra of the major constituent in methanol solution showed absorbance at λmax 530 nm wavelength. The accurate mass result showed that the main isolated product has a molecular mass of m/ z 323.1997. Further analysis using mass fragmentation (MS/MS), 1H NMR, COSY, HMQC NMR and DEPT confirmed the detailed structure of the pigment with an elementary composition of C20H25N3O. Fabrics dyed with the microbial prodiginines demonstrated antibacterial activity.
A new genus and species in the tribe Empoascini (Hemiptera, Cicadellidae, Typhlocybinae) from China

Abstract One new leafhopper genus, Circinans, is described with a new species Circinans striata sp. n. as the type species from southern China. Habitus photos and illustrations of male genitalia of this new species are given and differences between the new genus and closely related genera are discussed.
Reducing musical noise by a fine-shift overlap-add method applied to source separation using a time-frequency mask

Musical noise is a typical problem with blind source separation using a time-frequency mask. We report that a fine-shift and overlap-add method reduces the musical noise without degrading the separation performance. The effectiveness was confirmed by results of a listening test undertaken in a room with a reverberation time of RT/sub 60/=130 ms.
Attribute Based Hierarchical Clustering in Wireless Sensor Networks

Data routing in large wireless sensor networks face the challenge of delivering data over a network in which the nodes may not have globally unique identifiers, must satisfy stringent energy saving requirements and be highly scalable and fault tolerant. In addition, if the sensor network becomes a resource shared by members of a large user community (a likely event in the future), then the routing scheme must also be energy efficient when handling requests that may: (1) arrive at high rates, (2) need different types of data in the response, and (3) need response from subsets of the deployed sensors that satisfy certain attributes. In this paper we show that a system which uses pure flooding for triggering data collection is energy inefficient under the conditions above. We propose an attribute based hierarchical clustering algorithm as a solution and show that it is more efficient than broadcast related techniques under the circumnstances described. We cluster based on common (i.e. equal) attribute values shared among some sensors, which help contain the broadcast traffic generated to deliver the requests. Furthermore, Our algorithm implements clusterhead failure recovery mechanism and load balancing by rotating the clusterhead functionality among members in the cluster.
Explaining the Emergence of Different European Union Crisis and Emergency Management Structures

Two European Union (EU) tools were adopted to enhance cooperation among Member States in the case of crises and emergencies (natural, industrial or man-made) occurring both inside and outside the EU borders: first, the EU has developed a new tool in the field of civil protection that has been managed by the Directorate General Environment of the European Commission under the label of the Community Civil Protection Mechanism since 2001. Second, the Emergency and Crisis Coordination Arrangements (CCA), under the responsibility of the European Council, have been developed since 2005. Using a sociological neo-institutionalist approach based on the concept of ‘divergent isomorphism’, the paper explains who and what the sources of EU integration process were leading to the coexistence of these two structures. Two case studies are presented using process tracing to demonstrate that two different pre-existing organizational models were copied to create the EU structures of crisis and emergency management: that of the Community Marine pollution framework for the Community Civil Protection Mechanism and that of NATO for the CCA.
A new iterative algorithm for the solution for the load deflection square membranes

The reliability of micro electromechanical systems depends directly on the mechanical behavior of microstructures and their performances are strongly associated with a good knowledge of materials mechanical properties that compose them. Thus, it is important to precisely determine these properties. There are various methods for micro-materials' characterization. In this work, we are interested in the bulge test technique in order to extract the mechanical properties of square shaped membranes. First, a FEM model has been realized with ABAQUS software. Then, an iterative algorithm has been developed and implemented in Matlab, it controls and optimizes the Finite Element simulation parameters. Secondly, a bulge test bench was set up to carry out experimental measurements. The iterative algorithm was then interfaced with the Abaqus software solver and used to fit the simulation results with the experimental measurements. The investigation reveals that the algorithm converges faster and gives good results. Besides, the proposed method allows us to find the mechanical properties of any membrane geometry and thickness.
Different Venues, Different Markets, Different Experiences: Evidence from Live Music Performances in South Africa

The purpose of this research was to determine whether visitors who attend the same live music performance at four different destinations/locations vary and whether their needs were the same for a memorable visitor experience. Two-way frequency tables and Chi-square tests, as well as ANOVA and Tukey’s multiple comparisons were used to investigate any significant differences between the four locations of the shows. The results indicate significant statistical differences between the various locations based on visitor profile, economic impact and what factors visitors regarded as important for a memorable visitor experience. Determining these differences not only equips major music event managers with the improved knowledge to develop and manage future concerts at various destinations (cities) and locations (venues), but this research also helps management to ensure the creation of a memorable visitor experience. Keywords: Neil Diamond concert, Critical Success Factors, Location, Destination, Event Management, Memorable Visitor Experience
A Distributed Wearable, Wireless Sensor System for Evaluating Professional Baseball Pitchers and Batters

This paper introduces a compact, wireless, wearable system that measures signals indicative of forces, torques and other descriptive and evaluative features that the human body undergoes during bursts of extreme physical activity (such as during athletic performance). Standard approaches leverage high-speed camera systems, which need significant infrastructure and provide limited update rates and dynamic accuracy. This project uses 6 degree-of freedom inertial measurement units worn on various segments of an athlete’s body to directly make these dynamic measurements. A combination of low and high range sensors enables sensitivity for both slow and fast motion, and the addition of a compass helps in tracking joint angles. Data from the battery-powered nodes is acquired using a custom wireless protocol over an RF link and analyzed offline. Several professional pitchers and batters were instrumented with the system and data was gathered over many pitches and swings. We show some biomechanically descriptive parameters extracted from this data, and highlight ongoing work and system improvements
Using Dabigatran in Patients With Stroke

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is 1 of the most common causes of cardioembolic strokes accounting for at least 100 000 strokes each year in the United States. Strokes due to AF tend to be larger and more severe than other types of ischemic strokes with a 30-day mortality rate up to 24%. 1 Anticoagulation with warfarin can reduce the risk of stroke in patients with moderateand high-risk AF by 65%,2 yet the use of warfarin is limited by a number of factors, including concerns about bleeding, the need for frequent international normalized ratio (INR) monitoring as well as significant and common food and drug interactions.3–6 In October 2010, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the direct thrombin inhibitor dabigatran for primary and secondary stroke prevention (and systemic emboli prevention) in patients with AF.7 It is used as a fixed dose medication in most circumstances (150 mg twice a day if creatinine clearance is 30 mL/min or 75 mg twice a day if creatinine clearance is 15–30 mL/min) and does not require routine blood testing nor does it have any important interactions with most foods and medications. Dabigatran is not a substrate, inducer, or inhibitor of the cytochrome P450 enzymes.8 It has the potential to greatly expand clinicians’ and patients’ willingness to use anticoagulation in patients with high-risk AF. Often there is a gap between a new medication being approved and its widespread use. This is still true when one considers the underuse of warfarin in patients with AF, although there are a number of reasons for this finding. Patients with AF are often cared for by various physicians and other healthcare professionals in a variety of specialty and primary care areas and settings. For example, 25% of patients with AF first present with a stroke or transient ischemic attack and are diagnosed and perhaps cared for by a neurologist.9 Therefore, educational efforts about treatment for AF must be targeted at a multidisciplinary audience. The purpose of this article is to address a number of practical issues related to the use of dabigatran in patients with stroke or cerebrovascular disease. Some of these issues have been addressed in the clinical development program for dabigatran. In other cases, we have used available data and expert opinion to formulate reasonable answers to common clinical issues.10 In some cases, our recommendations are not based on data from large clinical trials, whereas in others, they are drawn from the inclusion and exclusion criteria and methodologies of the Randomized Evaluation of Long-Term Anticoagulant Therapy (RE-LY) study.11 This is not a review of the overall use of all antithrombotic therapy in AF nor is it a review of the treatment of AF in terms of cardiac issues. These topics have been well covered in recent guidelines.2,12,13
Rehabilitation. Beyond the risk paradigm.

Providing a succinct summary and critique of the scientific approach to offender rehabilitation, this volume for students of criminology, sociology and clinical psychology gives a comprehensive evaluation of both the Risk-Need-Responsivity Model and the Good Lives Model. " "Rehabilitation is a value-laden process involving a delicate balance of the needs and desires of clinicians, clients, the State and the public. Written by two internationally renowned academics in rehabilitation research, this book argues that intervention with offenders is not simply a matter of implementing the best therapeutic technology and leaving political and social debate to politicians and policy-makers.