Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Changes in Dispersal during Species’ Range Expansions

Explanations for rapid species’ range expansions have typically been purely ecological, with little attention given to evolutionary processes. We tested predictions for the evolution of dispersal during range expansion using four species of wing‐dimorphic bush cricket (Conocephalus discolor, Conocephalus dorsalis, Metrioptera roeselii, and Metrioptera brachyptera). We observed distinct changes in dispersal in the two species with expanding ranges. Recently colonized populations at the range margin showed increased frequencies of dispersive, long‐winged (macropterous) individuals, compared with longer‐established populations in the range core. This increase in dispersal appeared to be short‐lived because 5–10 years after colonization populations showed similar incidences of macroptery to populations in the range core. These changes are consistent with evolutionary change; field patterns persisted when nymphs were reared under controlled environmental conditions, and range margin individuals reared in the laboratory flew farther than range core individuals in a wind tunnel. There was also a reproductive trade‐off with dispersal in both females and males, which could explain the rapid reversion to lower rates of dispersal once populations become established. The effect of population density on wing morphology differed between populations from the range core (no significant effect of density) and expanding range margins (negative density dependence), which we propose is part of the mechanism of the changes in dispersal. Transient changes in dispersal are likely to be common in many species undergoing range expansion and can have major population and biogeographic consequences.
Synaptic excitation in cultures of mouse spinal cord neurones: receptor pharmacology and behaviour of synaptic currents.

Fast monosynaptic excitatory post‐synaptic potentials between spinal cord neurones in cell culture (s.c.‐s.c. e.p.s.p.s) were studied with current‐clamp and two‐electrode voltage‐clamp methods. The reversal potential, response to acidic amino acid antagonists, and behaviour of the synaptic current were examined. The amplitude of the e.p.s.p. increased with membrane potential hyperpolarization and decreased with depolarization. The reversal potential of the e.p.s.p. was +3.8 +/‐ 2.5 mV (mean +/‐ S.E. of mean). The reversal potential for responses to ionophoretically applied L‐glutamate and L‐aspartate was also near 0 mV. The acidic amino acid antagonist, cis‐2,3‐piperidine dicarboxylic acid (PDA, 0.25‐1.0 mM) reversibly antagonized the monosynaptic e.p.s.p.s as well as responses to kainate (KA) or quisqualate (QA). The selective N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate antagonist, (+/‐) 2‐amino‐5‐phosphonovaleric acid (APV), had little effect on either the monosynaptic e.p.s.p.s or responses to QA or KA at concentrations that abolished responses to L‐aspartate. Under voltage clamp, the peak synaptic current (e.p.s.c.) was linearly related to the membrane potential, increasing in amplitude with hyperpolarization and decreasing with depolarization from the resting potential. The decay of a somatic e.p.s.c. was well fitted by a single exponential function with a time constant of 0.6 ms at 25 degrees C. E.p.s.c. s which had proximal dendritic locations had decay time constants of 1‐2 ms. The decay time constant was voltage‐insensitive between ‐80 and +10 mV. We suggest that an acidic amino acid receptor other than that for NMDA mediates excitatory transmission at the s.c. ‐s.c. synapse; and that the underlying conductance mechanism is voltage insensitive with an estimated mean channel lifetime of less than 1 ms.
Achieving maximum system capacity in multiple-high altitude platforms through interference alignment

High-altitude platforms (HAPs) provide higher throughput to the users in ground unlike conventional terrestrial communication. Various capacity improvement techniques with multiple HAPs has been suggested such as cellular architecture and virtual multiple-input multiple-output (V-MIMO) systems. Maximizing system capacity in overlapped coverage area is still an open research area. In this scenario, we propose a system that maximizes capacity between two HAP and two ground stations. The main advantage of our proposed scheme is that each HAP can send data to the receiver without any cooperation. Restriction of precise beamforming of HAP antennas for cellular like architecture is removed with our scheme. The bit error rate performance of the proposed scheme in Rural and Urban scenarios are compared. In addition, the system capacity at various signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values and Rician factors for multiple HAP configurations are analyzed. The simulation results validate the improvement in capacity compared to the existing schemes.
Simultaneous Quantitative Determination of Metoprolol, Atorvastatin and Ramipril in Capsules by a Validated Stability-Indicating RP-UPLC Method

A simple ultra performance liquid chromatographic (UPLC) method has been developed for the simultaneous estimation of Metoprolol (MT), Atorvastatin (AT) and Ramipril (RM) from capsule dosage form. The method was developed using Zorbax® XDB-C18 (4.6 mm × 50 mm, 1.8 μm) column with a mobile phase consisting of 0.06% ortho phosphoric acid in Milli Q® water having an ion pair reagent, 0.0045 M Sodium lauryl sulphate as buffer, at ratio of buffer: Acetonitrile (50:50 v/v), at 55°C column temperature with a flow rate of 1.0 ml/min. Detection was carried out with ultra-violet detection at 210 nm for RM, MT and AT respectively. The retention times were about 1.3, 2.1 and 2.6 min for MT, AT and RM respectively, the method was validated for linearity, accuracy, precision, specificity, robustness and ruggedness. The % mean recoveries are 101.9, 102.1 and 101.4 for MT, AT and RM respectively. The method was found to be rugged and robust and can be successfully used to determine the three drugs and its combinations.
Factors influencing mentees' and mentors' learning throughout formal mentoring relationships

A qualitative case study approach was taken to identify what factors were perceived to influence learning for mentees and mentors during a pilot formal mentoring programme, within a West Midlands Healthcare Trust. Both sides of five dyads were interviewed at regular intervals over a 17-month period (October 2009 to February 2011). The results from this longitudinal study show how learning was expected and achieved by both parties, over time. Factors influencing learning were categorized and later compared to pre-existing theory in relation to sharing experiences, sharing information, discussing politics, reflection, observation and support. Additional categories emerged in relation to questioning and listening skills, and similarity and difference between both parties. A change of emphasis was clear in relation to some factors which influenced learning, as the relationships matured. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for human resource development (HRD) professionals in relation to how formal mentoring programmes are designed and supported over time.
Clinical significance of vascular endothelial growth factor C and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 3 in patients with nonsmall cell lung carcinoma

Vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGF‐C) plays an important role in lymphangiogenesis and activates VEGF receptor 3 (VEGFR‐3). By contrast, lymphatic spread is an important prognostic factor in patients with nonsmall cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). The objective of the current study was to determine whether the expression of VEGF‐C and VEGFR‐3 correlates with clinicopathologic factors and prognosis in patients with primary NSCLC.
Effect of strength and proprioception training on eversion to inversion strength ratios in subjects with unilateral functional ankle instability

Objectives: To examine the effect of six weeks of strength and proprioception training on eversion to inversion isokinetic strength ratios (E/I ratios) in subjects with unilateral functional ankle instability. Methods: Thirty eight subjects were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups: strength training (S); proprioception training (P); strength + proprioception training (B); control (C). Isokinetic strength was tested before and after training using a Kin Com 125 automatic positioning isokinetic dynamometer. Subtalar joint eversion and inversion motions were tested both concentrically and eccentrically through a range of motion involving 40°. All peak torque and average torque values were normalised for body mass. E/I ratios were calculated from average torque and peak torque measures by taking the concentric eversion value and combining it with the eccentric inversion value. Data were analysed using a mixed model analysis of variance with repeated measures on the test factor. Average torque and peak torque E/I ratios at 30 and 120°/s were analysed separately. Results: There were no significant differences in average torque and peak torque E/I ratios of the functionally unstable ankle for any of the groups after training compared with before. Conclusions: Six weeks of strength and proprioception training (either alone or combined) had no effect on isokinetic measures of strength in subjects with self reported unilateral functional instability. Further studies examining this agonist (concentric) to antagonist (eccentric) muscle group strength ratio are needed.
Educational aspirations among ethnic minority youth in Brussels: Does the perception of ethnic discrimination in the labour market matter? A mixed-method approach

Ethnic disparities in educational aspirations and choices are important to comprehend ethnic education inequality. Based on a mixed-method approach (3121 questionnaires and 40 interviews of pupils), this article investigates ethnic differences among nine ethnic minority groups of pupils in Brussels with regard to their educational aspirations. The multivariate analysis of the questionnaires shows that pupils from only four out of the nine ethnic minorities hold significantly higher aspirations than the majority group. In addition, our mixed-method results did not support the hypothesis on perceived ethnic discrimination in the labour market in explaining the higher educational aspirations of ethnic minority youth. Nevertheless, personal experience of discrimination at school is significantly associated with higher educational aspirations. We conclude by highlighting the relevance of the parental transmission of the intergenerational mobility project in explaining ethnic differences in youth’s educational aspirations.
VIP as a mediator of hexamethonium-sensitive, atropine-resistant vasodilation in the cat tongue.

Electrical stimulation (10 V, 0.2 ms) of the chorda-lingual nerve caused a biphasic vasodilatory response in the cat tongue with an initial phase which was most marked at low frequencies and a maintained phase which increased with frequency. Simultaneously, there was a VIP release as indicated by a marked increased VIP output from the tongue. VIP output increased with time of stimulation and was most pronounced at high frequencies. Atropine abolished the initial phase of vasodilation at low frequencies as well as reduced this phase at medium frequencies. At high frequency stimulation (15 Hz), the vasodilation was still somewhat reduced by atropine but in contrast to the cat submandibular salivary gland, the duration of the vasodilatory response did not increase after atropine. Furthermore, atropine did not increase VIP output from the tongue during nerve stimulation. Hexamethonium completely abolished VIP release as well as most of the vasodilation upon stimulation of the chorda-lingual nerve. The remaining vasodilation may be due to antidromic stimulation of unmyelinated trigeminal sensory neurons, since it was present when using high threshold stimulation parameters (10 V, 5 ms). Local intra-arterial infusion of acetylcholine or VIP caused a marked vasodilation of the tongue. Also substance P infusion induced a vasodilatory response. The response to acetylcholine was atropine sensitive, while the effects of VIP and substance P were atropine-resistant. Combined infusions of VIP and acetylcholine had an additive effect on vasodilation. In conclusion, the present data suggest that low threshold chorda-lingual nerve stimulation induced a release of both acetylcholine and VIP from postganglionic neurons in the tongue. The contribution by these two agents in the vasodilatory response may then depend upon time and frequency of stimulation. In contrast to the VIP nerves in the submandibular gland, no evidence suggests that VIP release from vascular nerves in the tongue is affected by atropine. High threshold stimulation also induces antidromic vasodilation possibly mediated via substance P release.
Study of category score algorithms for k-NN classifier

We analyzes category score algorithms for k-NN classifier found in the literature, including majority voting algorithm (MVA), simple sum algorithm (SSA). MVA and SSA are two mainly used algorithms to estimate score for candidate categories in k-NN classifier systems. Based on the hypothesis that utilization of internal relation between documents and categories could improve system performance, two new weighting score models: concept-based weighting (CBW) score model and term independence-based weighting (IBW) score model are proposed. Our experimental results confirm our hypothesis and show that in the term of precision average IBW and CBW are better than the other score models, while SSA is higher than MVA. According to macro-average F1 CBW performs best. Rocchio-based algorithm (RBA) always performs worst.
The informal sector as a catalyst for employment generation in Lagos State, Nigeria

AbstractUnemployment remains high in Nigeria due to disintegration between the formal and informal sectors, among other factors. While the unemployed largely focus on the formal sector in search of jobs, there is inadequate interest in the informal sector. Yet, this sector provides livelihoods for the majority of the population. This paper examines the informal sector as a catalyst for generating employment in Lagos State, Nigeria, using the Social Capital Theory and a descriptive survey research design. Data were collected from 480 apprentices, 40 masters, 20 journeymen, and 120 members of various communities through a structured questionnaire, Key Informant Interviews and Focus Group Discussions, respectively. The findings showed that 64.8 percent of the respondents reported parental sponsorship of vocations in the informal sector, 14.2 percent of the respondents were self-sponsored, and the remainders (18.5 percent and 2.5 percent) were reportedly sponsored by their relatives and masters. Awareness of opportunities for self employment in the informal sector was demonstrated by 71 percent of the respondents. However, 66.3 percent of the respondents thought that schooling could be better than vocations in the informal sector. Mothers’ occupation significantly associated with individuals’ choice of vocation in the informal sector (χ2= 33.71; P 0.05). Planning for self employment was significantly influenced by several factors including gender, age, mothers’ occupation, career plan, and satisfaction within the informal sector (t = 19.247, P < 0.01). The informal sector is vital for survival of youth in Lagos State, Nigeria. This sector should be supported for poverty eradication and entrepreneurial development.
Human Rating of Emotional Expressions - Scales vs. Preferences

A bstract: Human ratings of emotional expressions are the foundation for building and training automatic affect recognition systems. We compare two rating schemes for labeling emotional expressions: likert scales and pair-wise preferences. A statistical analysis shows that while there is a strong correlation between the two schemes, there are also frequent mismatches. Our findings indicate that the schemes perform differently well per affect label. We discuss reasons for this and outline planned future work based on the findings.
A social ecological exploration of physical activity influences among rural men and women across life stages

Social ecological models have been used to study physical activity (PA) influences of rural women across life stages. However, few, if any, studies have used these models in conjunction with qualitative methods to explore rural men’s PA perceptions or to concurrently explore rural men’s and women’s PA perceptions across life stages. This study adopted a social-ecological framework and thematic analysis to explore influences of men’s (n = 14) and women’s (n = 19) PA across midlife (i.e. ages 44–59) and older age (i.e. ages 60+), within a rural Midwestern community in the USA. The results revealed that social (e.g. family) and cultural influences (e.g. division of labour within the family) affected intrapersonal PA influences (e.g. physical self-perceptions, not having time). These influences had distinct and nuanced meanings for men and women across life stages, a finding that advances understandings of men’s and women’s rural PA from a social-ecological perspective. PA promotion efforts in a rural setting should view gender and age as complex sociocultural constructions that differentially impact the interplay of social-ecological influences.
Context-Adaptive Matrix Factorization for Multi-Context Recommendation

Data sparsity is a long-standing challenge for recommender systems based on collaborative filtering. A promising solution for this problem is multi-context recommendation, i.e., leveraging users' explicit or implicit feedback from multiple contexts. In multi-context recommendation, various types of interactions between entities (users and items) are combined to alleviate data sparsity of a single context in a collective manner. Two issues are crucial for multi-context recommendation: (1) How to differentiate context-specific factors from entity-intrinsic factors shared across contexts? (2) How to capture the salient phenomenon that some entities are insensitive to contexts while others are remarkably context-dependent? Previous methods either do not consider context-specific factors, or assume that a context imposes equal influence on different entities, limiting their capability of combating data sparsity problem by taking full advantage of multiple contexts. In this paper, we propose a context-adaptive matrix factorization method for multi-context recommendation by simultaneously modeling context-specific factors and entity-intrinsic factors in a unified model. We learn an entity-intrinsic latent factor for every entity, and a context-specific latent factor for every entity in each context. Meanwhile, using a context-entity mixture parameter matrix we explicitly model the extent to which each context imposes influence on each entity. Experiments on two real scenarios demonstrate that our method consistently outperforms previous multi-context recommendation methods on all different sparsity levels.Such a consistent performance promotion forms the unique superiority of our method, enabling it to be a reliable model for multi-context recommendation.
Lectin Histochemical Aspects of Mucus Function in the Oesophagus of the Reticulated Python (Python reticulatus)

Using lectin histochemistry, the study characterizes basic functional aspects of the mucus produced by the oesophageal epithelium of the Reticulated python (Python reticulatus). Reaction staining varied as related to the two epithelium types present, containing goblet cells and ciliary cells. Remarkable intensities were achieved especially in the luminal mucus layer and the fine mucus covering the epithelial ciliary border for Con A (α‐D‐Man; α‐D‐Glc) as part of neutral glycoproteins, Limax flavus agglutinin (NeuNac = NeuNgc), emphasizing that water binding hyaluronan provides a hydrated interface conductive to the passage of material and UEA‐I (α‐L‐Fuc), corroborating the view that fucose‐rich highly viscous mucus is helpful against mechanical stress during prey transport.
Pharmacokinetic Compatibility of Ginsenosides and Schisandra Lignans in Shengmai-san: From the Perspective of P-Glycoprotein

Background Phytochemical-mediated alterations in P-glycoprotein (P-gp) activity may result in herb-drug interactions by altering drug pharmacokinetics. Shengmai-san, a traditional Chinese herbal medicine composed by Panax Ginseng, Ophiopogon Japonicus, and Schisandra Chinensis, is routinely being used for treating various coronary heart diseases. In our previous studies, Schisandra Lignans Extract (SLE) was proved as a strong P-gp inhibitor, and herein, the compatibility of Shengmai-san was studied by investigating the influence of SLE on the pharmacokinetics of the ginsenosides from the perspective of P-gp. Methodology Pharmacokinetic experiments were firstly performed based on in vitro uptake, efflux and transport experiments in Caco-2, LLC-PK1 wild-type and MDR1-overexpressing L-MDR1 cells. During the whole experiment, digoxin, a classical P-gp substrate, was used as a positive control drug to verify the cells used are the valid models. Meanwhile, the effects of SLE on the pharmacokinetics of ginsenosides were further investigated in rats after single-dose and multi-dose of SLE. Results and Conclusions The efflux ratios of ginsenoside Rb2, Rc, Rg2, Rg3, Rd and Rb1 were found more than 3.5 in L-MDR1 cells and can be decreased significantly by verapamil (a classical P-gp inhibitor). Contrarily, the efflux ratios of other ginsenosides (Rh1, F1, Re, and Rg1) were lower than 2.0 and not affected by verapamil. Then, the effects of SLE on the uptake and transport of ginsenosides were investigated, and SLE was found can significantly enhance the uptake and inhibit the efflux ratio of ginsenoside Rb2, Rc, Rg2, Rg3, Rd and Rb1 in Caco-2 and L-MDR1 cells. Besides, In vivo experiments showed that single-dose and multi-dose of SLE at 500 mg/kg could increase the area under the plasma concentration time curve of Rb2, Rc and Rd significantly without affecting terminal elimination half-time. In conclusion, SLE could enhance the exposure of ginsenosides Rb2, Rc, Rg2, Rg3, Rd and Rb1 significantly.
The Elite Athlete – In a State of Exception?

At IAPS Ljubljana conference (September 2007) Dag Vidar Hanstad and Sigmund Loland presented a paper on elite-level athletes' duty to provide information on their whereabouts, to decide between two opposing positions: is this WADA demand justifiable anti-doping work or an indefensible surveillance regime? They concluded that on moral grounds this regime is conditionally acceptable, the condition being the acceptability of a general framework and objectives embodied in anti-doping global legislative foundations (the World Anti-Doping Code). But, as they said, principled objections against the system have more universal relevance, which has to be taken seriously. To take this ambiguous and intriguing conclusion a step further, I propose a legal rather than ethical approach, from the aspect of constitutional and international human rights law, and the possible clash of two legally acknowledged values – the concept of elite sport without doping, and the concept of individual human rights. This conflict between ideological or moral values and the legality of individual rights is not a novelty. This paper presents three instances of this conflict: Bernard de Mandeville's differentiation between public and private values; Eugène Sue's parallel legal and civil morals; and the contemporary moralisation of law which conflates legality into morality. The subordination of legality to morality has potentially dangerous consequences: here, Agamben's ‘state of exception’ comes to mind, with his analysis of potestas and auctoritas. However, in the case of sport and the war against doping, the origin of power is not in the nation state; it originates in civil society's non-governmental national and international bodies recognised as autonomous sources of legal order.