Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Great Lakes Entomologist The Great Lakes Entomologist

We deployed sticky traps underneath the crown of eastern hemlock, Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carrière, to assess their sensitivity at detecting crawlers (1 st instar nymphs) of the non-native hemlock woolly adelgid, Adelges tsugae An-nand (Hemiptera: Adelgidae). We found these traps more sensitive at detecting infested trees with low densities of A. tsugae than branch-tip sampling with pole pruners. We observed two peaks of crawler abundance at all sites: these peaks likely represented the timing of the progrediens and sistens crawler stages of A. tsugae . Deployment of sticky traps in treated and high-risk stands may prove useful at detecting residual and new infestations, respectively. ____________________ The hemlock woolly adelgid, Adelges tsugae Annand (Hemiptera: Adelgi-dae), is a bivoltine insect with a polymorphic (sistens, progrediens, and sexuales) life cycle that is obligatorily parthenogenetic in its invaded range (McClure 1989, Fitzpatrick et al. 2012). Each morph has 3 stages of development: egg, nymph (4 instars), and adult (McClure 1989). Crawlers are first instar nymphs and the only stage that is mobile. Crawlers become sessile as soon as they insert their mouthparts into tree tissues to feed (McClure 1989). In early spring, before bud burst in eastern hemlock, Tsuga canadensis
Effect of Blocking on Incentive Compatibility of Experiments

ii Acknowledgements . iii Chapter
Teachers’ Competency and Students’ Digital Literacy in Digital Environment

This study examined the relationship between the teachers’ competency and students’ literacy in the digital environment. Specifically, this focused on the following: level of digital competency of teachers; level of digital literacy; the relationship between the digital competency of teachers and the students’ digital literacy; significant differences among aspects of teachers’ competency and students’ literacy in the digital environment, and the contributing and constraining elements of teachers’ competency and literacy of students in the digital environment. The descriptive-comparative approach was used in this research. The Camarines Norte National High School's junior and senior high school students, and their teachers, participated in the study. The researcher utilized ready-made questionnaires to assess teachers' digital competency and students' levels of digital literacy, specifically from Moreno Integrated School and Camarines Norte NHS. Mean and One-Way Analysis of Variance were the statistical tools employed. Findings revealed that teachers have acquired the highest level of digital competence along content development and management. The Senior and Junior HS have very high media literacy but on high ICT and Information literacy. Web Resources Use and Management had the highest r-value and thus contributed the most on Information Literacy. There are no significant differences among aspects of teachers’ level of digital competence and students’ level of digital literacy in the virtual environment. Teachers and students’ challenges were mostly technological and academic in nature. Lastly, the demands of the new learning set-up had substantially improved teachers’ digital competence and students’ digital literacy even in the comforts of their homes and it had brought a more convenient
CRIM’s Speech Recognition System for the 4 th CHiME Challenge

This paper describes CRIM's contribution to the 4-th CHiME speech separation and recognition challenge. We took part in all the three tracks of the CHiME-4 challenge. Since the focus of this challenge was to address the more difficult 1 channel and 2 channel tasks, we focussed on algorithms that will have the largest impact on these two tasks. We focussed on increasing the training data and on using proven robust features from previous challenges so that they can favorably impact the word error rates (WER) for 1 channel and 2 channel tasks. We enhanced the training data by using the audio from all the microphones (i.e., microphones 1-6) instead of just microphone 5. We also added beamformed data from mic 1, 3-6. We band-limited the above training data to 4 kHz bandwidth and added these to the original training set, thereby doubling the training data. We tried many different robust feature parameters to see which ones actually gave lower WER than the Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients. In all our sub-systems we used the baseline language model and the backend provided by the organizers. Three different robust features actually gave lower WER for the 1 channel task. Combining the recognition outputs of 6 or 7 different features gave the optimal reduction in WER for the 1 channel, 2 channel and 6 channel tasks. Among all the features used in this task the R egularized M VDR C epstral C oefficients (RMCC) features performed the best.
Exiting the Cleanroom : On Ecological Validity and Ubiquitous Computing

Over the past decade and a half, corporations and academies have invested considerable time and money in the realization of ubiquitous computing. Yet design approaches that yield ecologically valid understandings of ubiquitous computing systems, which can help designers make design decisions based on how HUMAN–COMPUTER INTERACTION, 2008, Volume 23, pp. 47–99 Copyright © 2008 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0737-0024 print / 1532-7051 online DOI: 10.1080/07370020701851086 Scott Carter is a research scientist at FX Palo Alto Laboratory; his work focuses on tool support for early-stage experimentation with ubiquitous computing applications. Jennifer Mankoff is an Assistant Professor in the Human–Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University; her research interests are in tools and techniques for developing iterative prototypes of ubiquitous computing applications, accessible technology, and Internet-scale prototyping and evaluation. Scott Klemmer is an Assistant Professor of computer science at Stanford University; his research passion is enabling designers and other innovators to create interactive media that integrates the physical and digital worlds. Tara Matthews is a computer scientist at the IBM Almaden Research Center, with interests in peripheral displays, glanceability, evaluation, multitasking, accessibility, and ubiquitous computing. D o w n l o a d e d B y : [ S t a n f o r d U n i v e r s i t y ] A t : 0 1 : 3 1 2 5 A u g u s t 2 0 0 9
Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato

The human apolipoprotein B mRNA editing enzyme catalytic polypeptide 3 (APOBEC3, A3) are a family of proteins consisting of seven enzymes, A3A, B, C, D, F, G and H, which function as cytosine deaminases. The enzymes’ purpose in the cell is to mutate viral DNA during infection hindering or stopping replication of viruses such as human papillomavirus, herpes simplex virus, and HIV-1. Several of the A3 enzymes have also been implicated in contributing to cancers such as head and neck and breast cancers by mutating cellular genomic DNA, making the ability to control A3 expression an attractive target for cancer therapy. The A3 enzymes are regulated by small fragments of RNA called miRNA. In this thesis, twenty-four miRNAs were identified for their predicted silencing of A3 mRNA, cloned into expression vectors, and tested in a dual luciferase assay to determine their silencing ability. Three miRNAS, hsa-miR-1207-5p , hsa-miR-1227-3p, and hsa-miR-548a-5p, indicated a possible silencing interaction and I was able to show a significant silencing of A3C by hsa-miR-1207-5p. This thesis contributes to the study of a family of human immune proteins that are not only important in the innate immunity against viruses that infect millions of people each year, but are also molecular drivers of cancers. This research advances our understanding on miRNA control of the human APOBEC3 family and the potential for miRNA to be used as therapeutic agents against disease.
Classiﬁcation Based on Multiple-Resolution Data View

We examine eﬃcacy of a classiﬁer based on average of kernel density estimators; each estimator corresponds to a diﬀerent data “resolution”. Parameters of the estimators are adjusted to minimize the classiﬁcation error. We propose properties of the data for which our al-gorithm should yield better results than the basic version of the method. Next, we generate data with postulated properties and conduct numerical experiments. Analysis of the results shows potential advantage of the new algorithm when compared with the baseline classiﬁer.
Distinct Cortical Anatomy Linked to Subregions of the Medial Temporal Lobe Revealed by Intrinsic Functional Connectivity

[PDF] [Full Text] [Abstract] , December 1, 2008; 100 (6): 3328-3342. J Neurophysiol J. L. Vincent, I. Kahn, A. Z. Snyder, M. E. Raichle and R. L. Buckner Connectivity Evidence for a Frontoparietal Control System Revealed by Intrinsic Functional [PDF] [Full Text] [Abstract] , February 11, 2009; 29 (6): 1860-1873. J. Neurosci. Andrews-Hanna, R. A. Sperling and K. A. Johnson R. L. Buckner, J. Sepulcre, T. Talukdar, F. M. Krienen, H. Liu, T. Hedden, J. R. Stability, and Relation to Alzheimer's Disease Cortical Hubs Revealed by Intrinsic Functional Connectivity: Mapping, Assessment of [PDF] [Full Text] [Abstract] , February 16, 2009; 0 (2009): bhn256v1-bhn256. Cereb Cortex Margulies, A. K. Roy, B. B. Biswal, E. Petkova, F. X. Castellanos and M. P. Milham Z. Shehzad, A. M. C. Kelly, P. T. Reiss, D. G. Gee, K. Gotimer, L. Q. Uddin, S. H. Lee, D. S. The Resting Brain: Unconstrained yet Reliable [PDF] [Full Text] [Abstract] , February 25, 2009; 29 (8): 2477-2485. J. Neurosci. A. M. Leaver, J. Van Lare, B. Zielinski, A. R. Halpern and J. P. Rauschecker Brain Activation during Anticipation of Sound Sequences
Digital Commons@Georgia Southern Digital Commons@Georgia Southern

: In this work, the existence of a global minimizer for the previous Lagrangian formulation of nonpolar solvation model proposed in [1] has been proved. One of the proofs involves a construction of a phase field model that converges to the Lagrangian formulation. Moreover, an Eulerian formulation of nonpolar solvation model is proposed and implemented under a similar parameterization scheme to that in [1]. By doing so, the connection, similarity and difference between the Eulerian formulation and its Lagrangian counterpart can be analyzed. It turns out that both of them have a great potential in solvation prediction for nonpolar molecules, while their decompositions of attractive and repulsive parts are different. That indicates a distinction between phase field models of solvation and our Eulerian formulation.
Between-Monitor Differences in Step Counts Are Related to Body Size : Implications for Objective Physical Activity Measurement

Background: The quantification of the relationships between walking and health requires that walking is measured accurately. We correlated different measures of step accumulation to body size, overall physical activity level, and glucose regulation. Methods: Participants were 25 men and 25 women American Indians without diabetes (Age: 20-34 years) in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. We assessed steps/day during 7 days of free living, simultaneously with three different monitors (AccusplitAX120, MTI-ActiGraph, and Dynastream-AMP). We assessed total physical activity during free-living with doubly labeled water combined with resting metabolic rate measured by expired gas indirect calorimetry. Glucose tolerance was determined during an oral glucose tolerance test. Findings: Based on observed counts in the laboratory, the AMP was the most accurate device, followed by the MTI and the AX120, respectively. The estimated energy cost of 1000 steps per day was lower in the AX120 than the MTI or AMP. The correlation between AX120-assessed steps/day and waist circumference was significantly higher than the correlation between AMP steps and waist circumference. The difference in steps per day between the AX120 and both the AMP and the MTI were significantly related to waist circumference. Interpretation: Between-monitor differences in step counts influence the observed relationship between walking and obesity-related traits. Citation: Pomeroy J, Brage S, Curtis JM, Swan PD, Knowler WC, et al. (2011) Between-Monitor Differences in Step Counts Are Related to Body Size: Implications for Objective Physical Activity Measurement. PLoS ONE 6(4): e18942. doi:10.1371/journal.pone. 0018942 Editor: Alejandro Lucia, Universidad Europea de Madrid, Spain Received December 23, 2010; Accepted March 25, 2011; Published April 27, 2011 This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. Funding: This research was supported by the NIDDK intramural research program and the National Cancer Institute. PWF was also supported in part by a grant from the Visare Norr Foundation. Dynastream Inc, Cochrane, Alberta, Canada loaned the AMP-331 activity monitors. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. No additional external funding received for this study. Competing Interests: The authors have read the journal’s policy and have the following conflicts: Dynastream Inc, Cochrane, Alberta, Canada loaned the AMP331 activity monitors. Dynastream had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The loan of the monitors by Dynastream does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. * E-mail: jeremy.pomeroy@nih.gov
Zingerone Suppresses the Shedding of Endothelial Protein C Receptor

Zingerone (ZGR), a phenolic alkanone found in Zingiber officinale, has been reported to have various pharmacological activities including anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic activities. The endothelial cell protein C receptor (EPCR) plays an important role in the cytoprotective pathway and activation of protein C EPCR can be shed from the cell surface, which is mediated by tumor necrosis factor-α converting enzyme (TACE). However, little is known about the effects of ZGR on EPCR shedding. We investigated this by monitoring the effects of ZGR on phorbol-12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA)-, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-a, and interleukin (IL)-1p-induced EPCR shedding in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), and cecal ligation and puncture (CLP)-mediated EPCR shedding in mice, as well as by analyzing the underlying mechanisms. Here, ZGR triggered potent inhibition of PMA-, TNF-α-, IL-1β-and CLP-induced EPCR shedding through the inhibition of phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) such as p38, janus kinase (JNK), and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) 1/2. ZGR also inhibited PMA-induced TACE expression and activity in HUVECs, suggesting that p38, ERK1/2, and JNK could be molecular targets of ZGR. These results demonstrate the potential of ZGR as an agent against PMA- and CLP-mediated EPCR shedding.
RESEARCH OUTPUTS / RÉSULTATS DE RECHERCHE

—Label noise is an important issue in classiﬁcation, with many potential negative consequences. For example, the accuracy of predictions may decrease, whereas the complexity of inferred models and the number of necessary training samples may increase. Many works in the literature have been devoted to the study of label noise and the development of techniques to deal with label noise. However, the ﬁeld lacks a comprehensive survey on the different types of label noise, their consequences and the algorithms that take label noise into account. This paper proposes to ﬁll this gap. Firstly, the deﬁnitions and sources of label noise are considered and a taxonomy of the types of label noise is proposed. Secondly, the potential consequences of label noise are discussed. Thirdly, label noise-robust, label noise cleansing and label noise-tolerant algorithms are reviewed. For each category of approaches, a short discussion is proposed in order to help the practitioner to choose the most suitable technique in its own particular ﬁeld of application. Eventually, the design of experiments is also discussed, what may interest the researchers who would like to test their own algorithms. In this survey, label noise consists of mislabelled instances: no additional information is assumed to be available, like e.g. conﬁdences on labels.
Congenital transmission of Chagas disease: The role of newborn therapy on the disease's dynamics

Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is caused by a protozoan blood-borne pathogen called Trypanosoma cruzi. The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified Chagas as one of 21 neglected tropical diseases present in the world and estimates that 6-7 million people are currently infected with Chagas. Congenital transmission of Chagas disease contributes to a significant amount of new infections, especially in endemic areas where 22 . 5% of new infections are due to congenital transmission. In this paper, we investigate the impact of congenital transmission on the dynamics of Chagas disease through a mathematical model. Specifically, we examine how treatment and the efficacy of the therapy for newborns impact the progression and spread of Chagas disease. The influence of newborn therapy on the dynamics of the model is thoroughly investigated, both theoretically and numerically. The results illustrate the importance of an effective treatment for newborns in reducing infected cases of the Chagas. We observed that if vector transmission can be controlled, then at least 41% of the newborns need to be treated to curb the disease, and varying the newborn treatment rate and its efficacy significantly shapes the disease’s spread. The finding further shows that the therapy given to newborns is not sufficient but necessary to curb the transmission of Chagas disease, and a comprehensive approach that includes vector and vertical transmission control strategy is essential for eradicating Chagas disease.
mRNA PROTACs: engineering PROTACs for high‐efficiency targeted protein degradation

Abstract Proteolysis‐targeting chimeras (PROTACs) are essential bifunctional molecules that target proteins of interest (POIs) for degradation by cellular ubiquitination machinery. Despite significant progress made in understanding PROTACs' functions, their therapeutic potential remains largely untapped. As a result of the success of highly flexible, scalable, and low‐cost mRNA therapies, as well as the advantages of the first generation of peptide PROTACs (p‐PROTACs), we present for the first time an engineering mRNA PROTACs (m‐PROTACs) strategy. This design combines von Hippel–Lindau (VHL) recruiting peptide encoding mRNA and POI‐binding peptide encoding mRNA to form m‐PROTAC and promote cellular POI degradation. We then performed proof‐of‐concept experiments using two m‐PROTACs targeting two cancer‐related proteins, estrogen receptor alpha and B‐cell lymphoma‐extra large protein. Our results demonstrated that m‐PROTACs could successfully degrade the POIs in different cell lines and more effectively inhibit cell proliferation than the traditional p‐PROTACs. Moreover, the in vivo experiment demonstrated that m‐PROTAC led to significant tumor regression in the 4T1 mouse xenograft model. This finding highlights the enormous potential of m‐PROTAC as a promising approach for targeted protein degradation therapy.
Comparison of forages’ digestion levels for different in vitro digestion techniques in horses

BACKGROUND Forages are widely used in horse diets. Different in vitro techniques are being tried to determine the fermentation levels of forages in the horse digestive tract. OBJECTIVES This study aimed to evaluate the digestion levels of four dry forages commonly used in horse nutrition: alfalfa herbage, meadow hay, wheat straw, and Italian ryegrass. In vitro total digestion (TDT), in vitro Sunvold-large intestine digestion (SDT) and in vitro Menke-large intestine digestion (MDT) techniques were compared. METHODS The study determined in vitro true dry matter digestion (T-DMD), in vitro true organic matter digestion (T-OMD) and in vitro true neutral detergent fibre digestion (T-NDFD). Additionally, concentrations of straight short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs; acetic acid - AA, propionic acid , butyric acid, and valeric acid ) and branched short-chain fatty acids (BSCFA) were assessed. RESULTS The highest in vitro T-DMD, T-OMD and T-NDFD values were determined by the in vitro TDT for the four forages (p < 0.05). In vitro T-DMD and T-OMD values of alfalfa herbage were higher than those of Italian ryegrass, meadow hay and wheat straw in the in vitro TDT (p < 0.001). In addition, in vitro T-DMD and T-OMD values of alfalfa herbage in the in vitro SDT were higher than those of meadow hay and wheat straw (p < 0.001). In the in vitro TDT, the molarity of AA, total SCFA and BSCFA in the digestion fluid of alfalfa herbage was higher than those of other forages (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION The in vitro total enzymatic + fermentative digestion technique for horse forages revealed higher values than the in vitro fermentative digestion techniques. In general, the higher the non-structural carbohydrate and crude protein contents in the forage, the higher the results of the in vitro TDT compared to the other techniques.
Predictive factors of breast cancer mammography screening among Iranian women

Summary Introduction Understanding the factors that influence women’s cancer screening behavior is crucial in reducing cancer mortality through early detection. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the status of mammography and related factors among women who presented to the health centers of Khorasan Razavi province, Iran. Methods For this study, a sample of 251,011 women who visited healthcare centers affiliated with Mashhad University of Medical Sciences was selected. The study examined several variables, including sociodemographic information, current smoking, nutrition status, and physical exercise. All analyses were performed using Python programming language and SPSS software. Furthermore, to handle imbalanced data, we used SMOTE balancing method that is an oversampling method and produce synthetic samples from the minority class. Results The factors of age, education, being employed, having children, family history of cancer, physical activity, smoking status, and diet were all predictors of mammography screening. Moreover, findings showed that age and family history of breast cancer were most important variables to predict mammography status, respectively. Conclusions By examining various variables such as dietary habits, exercise, smoking, and demographic properties, it sheds light on the relationships between these factors and mammography screening. This provides valuable insights into the associations between breast cancer screening behavior and preventive lifestyle behaviors. By targeting both preventive lifestyle choices and breast cancer screening behaviors, interventions can effectively promote positive changes in behavior and ultimately reduce the incidence and impact of breast cancer.