Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Habitat selection and movement by spotted bass and shorthead redhorse downstream of a hydropeaking dam in Missouri

Flow alteration caused by hydropeaking dams may disrupt the natural flow regime and impact physical habitat and biological community, thus threatening the health of freshwater ecosystems. Life history strategies of fish evolved with their environments, including mobility to access habitats for feeding, spawning, refuge, and rearing. However, behavioral responses among species to artificially extreme flow and the influence of spatial and temporal scale, are not clearly understood. We used radio telemetry (from April 2016 to June 2017) to determine the habitat selection and daily and seasonal movement of two native fishes downstream of a hydropeaking dam on the Osage River, Missouri, where river stage may fluctuate up to 5 m daily. We selected two fishes from different habitat and spawning guilds, Spotted Bass (Micropterus punctulatus) and Shorthead Redhorse (Moxostoma macrolepidotum), that are common throughout the Midwestern United States and Canada and represent diverse life history strategies of riverine fishes. We used a Bayesian discrete choice analysis to determine seasonal and flow-related habitat selection and linear regression to evaluate predictors of movement rate of fishes. We determined flow to be “steady” or “fluctuating” based on
On the Use of Evolutionary Algorithms for Reactive Power Compensation in Electrical Distribution Networks – Experiments on a Case Study

In the electrical distribution network, reactive power compensation aims at guarantying an efficient delivery of active power to loads, releasing system capacity, reducing system losses, and improving system power factor and bus voltage profile. The achievement of these aims depends on the sizing and location of shunt capacitors (sources of reactive power). Operational, economical and quality of service objectives must be weighed by decision-makers / planning engineers to select acceptable solutions having in mind their practical implementation. Multi-objective models enable to grasp the conflicting nature of the objectives and the tradeoffs to be made in order to identify satisfactory compromise solutions by providing a basis to rationalize the comparison between non-dominated solutions. The problem of optimal capacitor placement in radial electrical distribution systems is formulated considering two objective functions: minimizing capacitor installation cost and minimizing system losses. Constraints are related with requirements of acceptable node voltage profile (quality of service), power flow (physical laws in electrical networks), and impossibility
Aldosterone activates endothelial exocytosis

Although elevated levels of aldosterone are associated with vascular inflammation, the proinflammatory pathways of aldosterone are not completely defined. We now show that aldosterone triggers endothelial cell exocytosis, the first step in leukocyte trafficking. Exogenous aldosterone stimulates endothelial exocytosis of Weibel-Palade bodies, externalizing P-selectin and releasing von Willebrand factor. Spironolactone, a nonselective mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) blocker, antagonizes aldosterone-induced endothelial exocytosis. Knockdown of the MR also decreases exocytosis, suggesting that the MR mediates exocytosis. Aldosterone triggers exocytosis within minutes, and this effect is not inhibited by actinomycin D, suggesting a nongenomic effect of aldosterone. Aldosterone treatment of endothelial cells increases leukocyte adherence to endothelial cells in culture. Taken together, our data suggest that aldosterone activates vascular inflammation in part through nongenomic, MR-mediated pathways. Aldosterone antagonism may decrease vascular inflammation and cardiac fibrosis in part by blocking endothelial exocytosis.
Social Indicators and Public Policy in the Age of Devolution

Development and publication of this report was made possible with funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts. IRP publications (discussion papers, special reports, and the newsletter Focus) are now available electronically. Executive Summary Powerful themes in U.S. social policy are converging in ways that increase the importance of social indicators as public policy tools. The themes driving this transformation are best exemplified by what are termed the devolution and reinvention movements. Devolution constitutes a shift in program authority from more inclusive levels of government to levels closer to the problems purportedly being addressed (e.g., from the national government to states to local communities). Similarly, the government reinvention movement shifts public sector management from a focus on process and inputs (what organizations and programs do) to a focus on outcomes (what organizations and programs accomplish). The focus on results requires a rather sophisticated use of what we broadly think of as social indicators. Contemporary devolution, embodied in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act passed in August 1996, is characterized by the following themes: (1) termination of the individual entitlement status of selected income maintenance and service programs; (2) grouping related programs into broad program areas, defined either by common target populations or common service technologies; (3) converting federal contributions for programs from matching formulas into closed-ended block grants so that costs are no longer proportionately shared among local and federal governments; and (4) reducing or substantially transforming the federal role in regulation and rule making, in assuring accountability, and in providing technical assistance to the states. Both the current political climate and federal fiscal constraints for the coming decade make it likely that devolution will continue to evolve. States and localities are responding by adopting a number of policy tools related to the government reinvention movement. Government reinvention holds that managers, agencies, and even ii whole levels of government need maximum flexibility in determining how they respond to the particular needs and changing environments of their populations. Greater responsibility at the state and local level for planning and design requires abundant, high-quality social indicator data at those levels. Common and measurable social goals become the focus for coordinating planning within and across agencies, and between government and private interests within the community or state. Further, accountability between higher and lower levels of government shift management attention from measures of process to measures of outcomes. Numerous concrete expressions of the reinventing …
Food and drug administration black box warning on the perioperative use of droperidol: a review of the cases.

I n a recent Editorial (1), it was suggested that the use of small-dose droperidol has been a highly costeffective antiemetic for over 30 years. Droperidol, 0.625–1.25 mg IV, has been widely accepted as a firstline therapy for the management of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) (2,3). The decision by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue a “black box” warning regarding the use of droperidol for the treatment and/or prevention of PONV has been challenged by many anesthesiologists (4). Under the Freedom of Information Act, we requested information about the cases on which the FDA warning was based. In response, we received data contained in the adverse event reporting system: a computerized database that contains a summary of all adverse events reported to the FDA. There were 273 cases reported to the FDA over the period from November 1, 1997 until January 2, 2002. This information has been previously presented (5). After reviewing the database, we requested copies of the individual case reports (MedWatch forms) in which cardiac adverse events were reported after the use of droperidol at doses of 1.25 mg or less. These forms contain the information voluntarily submitted to the FDA or to the drug manufacturer by consumers or health care professionals. The reporting person determined whether droperidol was the primary or secondary suspect. The content of these forms represents ALL the information that the FDA has about the reported cases. The information extracted from the MedWatch forms is presented in Table 1.
Signal Processing in Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS): Methodological Differences Lead to Different Statistical Results

Even though research in the field of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has been performed for more than 20 years, consensus on signal processing methods is still lacking. A significant knowledge gap exists between established researchers and those entering the field. One major issue regularly observed in publications from researchers new to the field is the failure to consider possible signal contamination by hemodynamic changes unrelated to neurovascular coupling (i.e., scalp blood flow and systemic blood flow). This might be due to the fact that these researchers use the signal processing methods provided by the manufacturers of their measurement device without an advanced understanding of the performed steps. The aim of the present study was to investigate how different signal processing approaches (including and excluding approaches that partially correct for the possible signal contamination) affect the results of a typical functional neuroimaging study performed with fNIRS. In particular, we evaluated one standard signal processing method provided by a commercial company and compared it to three customized approaches. We thereby investigated the influence of the chosen method on the statistical outcome of a clinical data set (task-evoked motor cortex activity). No short-channels were used in the present study and therefore two types of multi-channel corrections based on multiple long-channels were applied. The choice of the signal processing method had a considerable influence on the outcome of the study. While methods that ignored the contamination of the fNIRS signals by task-evoked physiological noise yielded several significant hemodynamic responses over the whole head, the statistical significance of these findings disappeared when accounting for part of the contamination using a multi-channel regression. We conclude that adopting signal processing methods that correct for physiological confounding effects might yield more realistic results in cases where multi-distance measurements are not possible. Furthermore, we recommend using manufacturers’ standard signal processing methods only in case the user has an advanced understanding of every signal processing step performed.
Exploring Consumer Value of Cross-Border Online Shopping: an Application of means-End Chain Theory and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

While online shopping websites are facing the difficulties of price and low-quality competition, crossborder online shopping is on a vigorous development trend, showing that cross-border online shopping is an important trend of online shopping field. Due to the complexity of cross-border online shopping is much higher than the traditional domestic online shopping, so understanding the value of cross-border online shopping consumers is the most important success factors. Companies want to develop new markets abroad, must understand the local consumer’s behaviour and their decision-making process in order to make good business strategies. This study uses means-end chain to construct Taiwanese cross-border online shopping consumers’ hierarchical value map, and also uses Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to sort these value elements’ importance. After obtained the reason why consumers use cross-border online shopping service and what values they got in this service. Researcher can predict and analyse the evolution and development of crossborder online shopping, provide reference for future online shopping academic studies and online shopping industry’s decision-making.
Impact of presumed consent for organ donation on donation rates: a systematic review

Objectives To examine the impact of a system of presumed consent for organ donation on donation rates and to review data on attitudes towards presumed consent. Design Systematic review. Data sources Studies retrieved by online searches to January 2008 of Medline, Medline In-Process, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, HMIC, PAIS International, and OpenSIGLE. Studies reviewed Five studies comparing donation rates before and after the introduction of legislation for presumed consent (before and after studies); eight studies comparing donation rates in countries with and without presumed consent systems (between country comparisons); 13 surveys of public and professional attitudes to presumed consent. Results The five before and after studies represented three countries: all reported an increase in donation rates after the introduction of presumed consent, but there was little investigation of any other changes taking place concurrently with the change in legislation. In the four best quality between country comparisons, presumed consent law or practice was associated with increased organ donation—increases of 25-30%, 21-26%, 2.7 more donors per million population, and 6.14 more donors per million population in the four studies. Other factors found to be important in at least one study were mortality from road traffic accidents and cerebrovascular causes, transplant capacity, gross domestic product per capita, health expenditure per capita, religion (Catholicism), education, public access to information, and a common law legal system. Eight surveys of attitudes to presumed consent were of the UK public. These surveys varied in the level of support for presumed consent, with surveys conducted before 2000 reporting the lowest levels of support (28-57%). The most recent survey, in 2007, reported that 64% of respondents supported a change to presumed consent. Conclusion Presumed consent alone is unlikely to explain the variation in organ donation rates between countries. Legislation, availability of donors, organisation and infrastructure of the transplantation service, wealth and investment in health care, and public attitudes to and awareness of organ donation may all play a part, but their relative importance is unclear. Recent UK surveys show support for presumed consent, though with variation in results that may reflect differences in survey methods.
Sliding Mode Momentum Observers for Estimation of External Torques and Joint Acceleration

Interactions between robots and their environment give rise to external wrenches acting on the robot structure. The estimation of the resulting torques in the joints is fundamental in human-robot interaction to detect/identify collisions and perform suitable reaction strategies. Other applications may require to use the estimation for compensating the effects of the external torques within the control loop. The well-established momentum observer, which relies on proprioceptive sensors only, is usually used for these purposes. In this work, the momentum dynamics is used to derive new observers. While the classic momentum observer provides a first-order filtered version of the external torques, here a (theoretically) finite-time convergence is achieved. Simulations and experiments are used to validate the performance of the proposed methods.
Applications of Probiotics as a Functional Ingredient in Food and Gut Health

Probiotics are live microbes which serve as excellent functional food ingredients, to improve human health. They provide essential metabolites with dietary and therapeutic characteristics which confers numerous health benefits. They ensure a proper maintenance of the gut health through complex interactions across the gut-brain axis. The probiotics enter into the body through food. Probiotics can exist naturally or be infused in food. Food products containing probiotics are viable modes for a healthy gut. Understanding the mechanism of action of the probiotic strains and their interaction with the gut microflora is absolutely necessary. This review elaborates on the applications of probiotics in food . It also describes the possible mechanism of action and its clinical significance.
Ads suit up!: effects of website and advertiser credibility on consumer responses to banner ads

Effective communication on the internet is becoming increasingly difficult for advertisers, as they have to compete with many others for user attention. We examine the role of source credibility (specifically website and advertiser credibility) as a means to increase advertising effectiveness. Our results showed that website credibility affects ad credibility, whereas advertiser credibility also enhances attitude toward the brand, and users' purchase intention. Based on these findings, we discuss implications and opportunities for future research on online advertising.
Hug over a distance

People in close relationships, who are separated by distance, often have difficulty expressing intimacy adequately. Based on the results of an ethnographic study with couples, a prototype was developed to test the feasibility of technology in the domain of intimacy. Hug Over a Distance is an air-inflatable vest that can be remotely triggered to create a sensation resembling a hug. Although the couples did not consider the vest to be useful in their daily lives, the prototype served to provoke and stimulate design ideas from the couples during participative design workshops. An additional and unexpected benefit was also found: the prototype enhanced the couples' understanding of the researchers' methods, suggesting that prototypes can serve as tools to make participatory design volunteers aware of their importance in academic research.
Comparative analysis for data-driven temporal filters obtained via principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) in speech recognition

The Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) has been widely used to derive the data-driven temporal filtering of speech feature vectors. In this paper, we proposed that the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) can also be used in the optimization process just as LDA to obtain the temporal filters, and detailed comparative analysis between these two approaches are presented and discussed. It's found that the PCA-derived temporal filters significantly improve the recognition performance of the original MFCC features as LDA-derived filters do. Also, while PCA/LDA filters are combined with the conventional temporal filters, RASTA or CMS, the recognition performance will be further improved regardless the training and testing environments are matched or mismatched, compressed or noise corrupted.
Minor physical anomalies and schizophrenia spectrum disorders: a prospective investigation.

OBJECTIVE The authors prospectively assessed the relationship between minor physical anomalies identified in childhood and adult psychiatric outcome. METHOD In 1972, minor physical anomalies were measured in a group of 265 Danish children ages 11-13. The examination was part of a larger study investigating early signs of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Many of the subjects had a parent with schizophrenia, leaving them at high risk for developing a schizophrenia spectrum disorder. In 1991, adult psychiatric outcome data were obtained for 91.3% (N=242) of the original subjects, including 81 who were at high risk. RESULTS Individuals with a high number of minor physical anomalies developed schizophrenia spectrum disorders significantly more often than they developed a no mental illness outcome. Further, individuals with a high number of minor physical anomalies tended to develop schizophrenia spectrum disorders more often than other psychopathology. Among individuals at genetic high risk, higher numbers of minor physical anomalies may interact with pre-existing vulnerabilities for schizophrenia to increase the likelihood of a schizophrenia spectrum disorder outcome. CONCLUSIONS Minor physical anomalies may provide important clues to understanding schizophrenia spectrum disorders from a neurodevelopmental perspective. Minor physical anomalies appear to signal stressors relevant to schizophrenia spectrum development, especially in those at genetic risk for schizophrenia.
High-Performance and Traditional Multicrystalline Silicon: Comparing Gettering Responses and Lifetime-Limiting Defects

In recent years, high-performance multicrystalline silicon (HPMC-Si) has emerged as an attractive alternative to traditional ingot-based multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si), with a similar cost structure but improved cell performance. Herein, we evaluate the gettering response of traditional mc-Si and HPMC-Si. Microanalytical techniques demonstrate that HPMC-Si and mc-Si share similar lifetime-limiting defect types but have different relative concentrations and distributions. HPMC-Si shows a substantial lifetime improvement after P-gettering compared with mc-Si, chiefly because of lower area fraction of dislocation-rich clusters. In both materials, the dislocation clusters and grain boundaries were associated with relatively higher interstitial iron point-defect concentrations after diffusion, which is suggestive of dissolving metal-impurity precipitates. The relatively fewer dislocation clusters in HPMC-Si are shown to exhibit similar characteristics to those found in mc-Si. Given similar governing principles, a proxy to determine relative recombination activity of dislocation clusters developed for mc-Si is successfully transferred to HPMC-Si. The lifetime in the remainder of HPMC-Si material is found to be limited by grain-boundary recombination. To reduce the recombination activity of grain boundaries in HPMC-Si, coordinated impurity control during growth, gettering, and passivation must be developed.
[The effect of gender on the physician's role. Attitudes and expectations of medical students examined by a questionnaire at the start of their studies].

A questionnaire was given to 254 medical students matriculated in 1992/93 concerning their motivation for wanting to become a doctor, attitudes towards which qualities a doctor should have and their potential choice of medical specialty. The analysis focuses on whether answers are relation-orientated (i.e. directed towards relations to others) or autonomy-orientated (i.e. directed towards rationality and independence). The results show that motivations for becoming a doctor are both relation- and autonomy-orientated. Most students expect the doctor to both be able to relate to the patient and be professionally competent. No gender differences could be demonstrated concerning motivations for becoming a doctor or which qualities a good doctor should possess. Significant gender differences were displayed concerning choice of specialty, most women aiming towards relation-orientated specialties and most men aiming towards autonomy-orientated specialties. It is concluded that the growing proportion of women doctors could change the medical profession towards becoming more patient- and relation-orientated, however their choice of relation-orientated and lower prestige specialties could result in less overall influence than one might otherwise expect.
Synthesis of uniform core–shell gelatin–alginate microparticles as intestine‐released oral delivery drug carrier

A core–shell gelatin–alginate composite used for intestine‐released oral delivery drug carrier was synthesized through microfluidic technique. At the fixed continuous phase flow rate, the size of the core–shell gelatin–alginate microparticles increases with the dispersed phase flow rate, and monodispersity can be retained (the variation coefficient for the diameter distribution can be kept less than 10%). The fabricated microparticles could remain intact in gastric juice for at least 3 h, indicating that the gelatin core could be well protected by alginate shell in acid environment. However, the alginate shell of the microparticles would swell or collapse in alkali environment in half an hour, assuring the controlled drug release in intestinal juice. The fabricated uniform core–shell gelatin–alginate microparticles were potential as pH‐responsive drug carriers.