Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Customizable physical interfaces for interacting with conventional applications

When using today's productivity applications, people rely heavily on graphical controls (GUI widgets) as the way to invoke application functions and to obtain feedback. Yet we all know that certain controls can be difficult or tedious to find and use. As an alternative, a customizable physical interface lets an end-user easily bind a modest number of physical controls to similar graphical counterparts. The user can then use the physical control to invoke the corresponding graphical control's function, or to display its graphical state in a physical form. To show how customizable physical interfaces work, we present examples that illustrate how our combined phidgets® and widget tap packages are used to link existing application widgets to physical controls. While promising, our implementation prompts a number of issues relevant to others pursuing interface customization.
REVIEW—ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION‐ABSORBING MYCOSPORINE‐LIKE AMINO ACIDS IN CORAL REEF ORGANISMS: A BIOCHEMICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL PERSPECTIVE

The clear waters surrounding tropical coral reefs typically are oligotrophic, yet these reefs are highly productive and support dense populations of marine organisms. This paradox is resolved in part because many coral reef invertebrates accommodate unicellular autotrophs (‘‘zooxanthellae,’’ Symbiodinium spp.; Prochlorales, Prochloron sp.; cyanobacteria) within their tissues. These photoautotrophic symbioses entail an exchange of nutrients between the endosymbionts and the animal hosts. Organic compounds produced by the microalgal partners are released to the hosts for their nutrition while inorganic metabolic wastes are recycled to fertilize the algae (Muscatine 1990). The requirement for photosynthetically active radiation (PAR, 400–700 nm) also exposes such algalinvertebrate symbioses and other primary producers to high levels of environmental ultraviolet radiation (UVR 5 295–400 nm) in tropical waters (Smith and Baker 1979, Fleischmann 1989). These waters are often low in UV-absorbing particulate and dissolved organic matter, and sea level fluences of solar UV are high because of the short atmospheric path length and thinness of the stratospheric ozone layer above the tropics (Baker et al. 1980). Photoautotrophic symbiosis thus presents an evolutionary challenge by precluding the morphological development of an optically opaque barrier (such as hair, scales, and feathers in higher vertebrates) and potentially allows damaging UV radiation to reach vulnerable biomolecules in both partners. The problem is exacerbated because the tissues are hyperoxic (. 250% air saturation: Kuhl et al.
Using offline bitstream analysis for power-aware video decoding in portable devices

Dynamic voltage/frequency scheduling algorithms for multimedia applications have recently been a subject of intensive research. Many of these algorithms use control-theoretic feedback techniques to predict the future execution demand of an application based on the demand in the recent past. Such techniques suffer from two major disadvantages: (i) they are computationally expensive, and (ii) it is difficult to give performance or quality-of-service guarantees based on these techniques (since the predictions can occasionally turn out to be incorrect). To address these shortcomings, in this paper we propose a completely new approach for dynamic voltage and frequency scaling. Our technique is based on an offline bitstream analysis of multimedia files. Based on this analysis, we insert metadata information describing the computational demand that will be generated when decoding the file. Such bitstream analysis and metadata insertion can be done when the multimedia file is being downloaded into a portable device from a desktop computer. In this paper we illustrate this technique using the MPEG-2 decoder application. We show that the amount of metadata that needs to be inserted is a very small fraction of the total size of the video clip and it can lead to significant energy savings. The metadata inserted will typically consist of the frequency value at which the processor needs to be run at different points in time during the decoding process. Lastly, in contrast to runtime prediction-based techniques, our scheme can be used to provide performance and quality-of-service guarantees and at the same time avoids any runtime computation overhead.
Senseless and Daughterless confer neuronal identity to epithelial cells in the Drosophila wing margin

The basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) proneural proteins Achaete and Scute cooperate with the class I bHLH protein Daughterless to specify the precursors of most sensory bristles in Drosophila. However, the mechanosensory bristles at the Drosophila wing margin have been reported to be unaffected by mutations that remove Achaete and Scute function. Indeed, the proneural gene(s) for these organs is not known. Here, we show that the zinc-finger transcription factor Senseless, together with Daughterless, plays the proneural role for the wing margin mechanosensory precursors, whereas Achaete and Scute are required for the survival of the mechanosensory neuron and support cells in these lineages. We provide evidence that Senseless and Daughterless physically interact and synergize in vivo and in transcription assays. Gain-of-function studies indicate that Senseless and Daughterless are sufficient to generate thoracic sensory organs (SOs) in the absence of achaete-scute gene complex function. However, analysis of senseless loss-of-function clones in the thorax implicates Senseless not in the primary SO precursor (pI) selection, but in the specification of pI progeny. Therefore, although Senseless and bHLH proneural proteins are employed during the development of all Drosophila bristles, they play fundamentally different roles in different subtypes of these organs. Our data indicate that transcription factors other than bHLH proteins can also perform the proneural function in the Drosophila peripheral nervous system.
Doctors as managers: investors and reluctants in a dual role

Government reform of the NHS in the UK has sought to increase the involvement of doctors (clinicians) in hospital management. Using frameworks from the psychological contract and organisational misbehaviour literatures, this paper examines the processes involved when clinicians assume management roles. This literature seeks to explain breaches to expectations regarding prior agreements with management and subsequent actions of 'getting even' as a result of breaches to the employment relationship. A qualitative methodology using interviews was undertaken, which identified two distinct groups of clinician-manager. Investors actively pursued a management opportunity as an alternative to clinical medicine, whilst reluctants tended to assume a management role to protect particular specialities from outside influence or from those they thought would be inappropriate clinician-managers. Investors and reluctants often had very little prior experience of management and managers and had problems reconciling their dual clinician-management role. Poor relationships with hospital managers who often had no understanding of their dual responsibilities led to tensions and conflict, which questions continued developments in this important area of UK health policy. Suggestions for improving this process are outlined.
Absence of species discrimination in
 Drosophila pseudoobscura
 and
 D. persimilis
 males

Abstract Despite frequent assumptions in both the theoretical and empirical literature that males are indiscriminate in their courtship, species mating discrimination by males and females are approximately equally frequent in Drosophila . This study looked for evidence of male species discrimination in D. pseudoobscura and D. persimilis through both choice and no-choice experiments. The results indicate that males of these species court females indiscriminately. Thus, although male mate choice sexually isolates many other Drosophila species, it does not appear to serve as an isolating mechanism in these sibling species. The implications of the lack of species discrimination by males to speciation and the respective roles of choice and no-choice experiments are discussed.
BORN PN A Midline C Hypothesis 1 Hypothesis 2 Hypothesis 3

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is ideally suited for investigating the neural circuit basis of behavior. Due to the simplicity and genetic tractability of the fly brain, neurons and circuits are identifiable across animals. Additionally, a large set of transgenic lines has been developed with the aim of specifically labeling small subsets of neurons and manipulating them in sophisticated ways. Electrophysiology and imaging can be applied in behaving individuals to examine the computations performed by each neuron, and even the entire population of relevant neurons in a particular region, because of the small size of the brain. Moreover, a rich repertoire of behaviors that can be studied is expanding to include those requiring cognitive abilities. Thus, the fly brain is an attractive system in which to explore both computations and mechanisms underlying behavior at levels spanning from genes through neurons to circuits. This review summarizes the advantages Drosophila offers in achieving this objective. A recent neurophysiology study on olfactory behavior is also introduced to demonstrate the effectiveness of these advantages. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Contributions From Different Model Organisms to Brain Research. 2014 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis Strains from Cattle and Sheep Can Be Distinguished by a PCR Test Based on a Novel DNA Sequence Difference

ABSTRACT A DNA sequence differing between sheep and cattle types of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis was identified and used to develop a PCR test. The test unequivocally distinguished all sheep types from cattle types and was negative for a wide range of other strains from the Mycobacterium avium-Mycobacterium intracellulare complex. The test will be useful for epidemiological purposes, particularly in hosts such as deer that can be easily infected with either type.
Factor VIII safety: plasma-derived versus recombinant products.

It is impossible to understand the importance of safety issues regarding the use of plasma-derived and recombinant clotting factor concentrates without looking back at the evolution of the management of haemophilia over the last 50 years. The treatment of people with haemophilia improved radically following the discovery by Judith Pool in the first half of the 1960s of the possibility of concentrating anti-haemophilic factors by cryoprecipitation of plasma1,2. Various techniques for further concentrating and purifying the coagulation factors were introduced such that these factors became increasingly available and easier to infuse3. This opened up a whole new world in which people with haemophilia could treat themselves more rapidly thus limiting bleeding into their joints, could treat themselves at home thus decreasing their dependence on the emergency room, could treat themselves prophylactically prior to activities that might cause bleeding, and could travel. This progress in the management of haemophilia has dramatically improved not only the life-expectancy of these patients but also their quality of life.
A Comparative Study of Two Postreconstruction Beam Hardening Correction Methods

The general nature of postreconstruction beam hardening correction methods is discussed. A methodology for choosing the energy of reconstruction is presented based on a technique of evaluating the "nearness" of two projection data sets. Two previously published postreconstruction beam hardening correction methods are described within a common framework. These methods differ at a number of independent places and so one can produce hybrid methods by interchanging some but not all of the choices. A basic difference between the methods is that one needs only the initial reconstruction during the postreconstruction correcting phase, while the other needs the original projection data as well. Both methods have been implemented and are compared (using a mathematical head phantom) from the points of view of the nearness of the corrected polychromatic projection data to the desired monochromatic projection data and the visual quality of the reconstructions. Variants and hybrids of the two methods are also investigated and recommendations based on the results are presented.
Ataxin-1 and ataxin-2 intermediate-length PolyQ expansions in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Objective: Recent evidence suggests that intermediate-length polyglutamine (PolyQ) expansions in the ataxin-2 (ATXN-2) gene are a risk factor for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This work was undertaken with the aim to investigate the frequency of ataxin-1 (ATXN-1) and ATXN-2 PolyQ expansions in a cohort of patients with sporadic ALS (sALS) and patients with familial ALS (fALS) from southern Italy. Methods: We assessed the PolyQ lengths of ATXN-1 and ATXN-2 in 405 patients with sALS, 13 patients with fALS, and 296 unrelated controls without history of neurodegenerative disorders. Results: We found significantly higher intermediate PolyQ expansions ≥32 for ATXN-1 alleles and ≥28 for ATXN-2 alleles in the sALS cohort (ATXN-1: ALS, 7.07% vs controls, 2.38%; p = 0.0001; ATXN-2: ALS, 2.72% vs controls, 0.5%; p = 0.001). ATXN-1 CAT and ATXN-2 CAA interruptions were detected in patients with ALS only. Age at onset, site of onset, and sex were not significantly related to the ATXN-1 or ATXN-2 PolyQ repeat length expansions. Conclusions: Both ATXN-1 and ATXN-2 PolyQ intermediate expansions are independently associated with an increased risk for ALS.
A novel quantitative trait locus on mouse chromosome 18, "era1," modifies the entrainment of circadian rhythms.

STUDY OBJECTIVE The mammalian circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the hypothalamus conveys 24-h rhythmicity to sleep-wake cycles, locomotor activity, and other behavioral and physiological processes. The timing of rhythms relative to the light/dark (LD12:12) cycle is influenced in part by the endogenous circadian period and the time of day specific sensitivity of the clock to light. We now describe a novel circadian rhythm phenotype, and a locus influencing that phenotype, in a segregating population of mice. METHODS By crossbreeding 2 genetically distinct nocturnal strains of mice (Cast/Ei and C57BL/6J) and backcrossing the resulting progeny to Cast/Ei, we have produced a novel circadian phenotype, called early runner mice. RESULTS Early runner mice entrain to a light/dark cycle at an advanced phase, up to 9 hours before dark onset. This phenotype is not significantly correlated with circadian period in constant darkness and is not associated with disruption of molecular circadian rhythms in the SCN, as assessed by analysis of period gene expression. We have identified a genomic region that regulates this phenotype-a major quantitative trait locus on chromosome 18 (near D18Mit184) that we have named era1 for Early Runner Activity locus one. Phase delays caused by light exposure early in the subjective night were of smaller magnitude in backcross offspring that were homozygous Cast/Ei at D18Mit184 than in those that were heterozygous at this locus. CONCLUSION Genetic variability in the circadian response to light may, in part, explain the variance in phase angle of entrainment in this segregating mouse population.
Why we need more synaptogenic cell-adhesion proteins

The mammalian brain is arguably the most complex organ that evolution has brought forward. In the human brain, for example, about 1011 neurons are connected via some 1015 synapses to form multiple specifically connected neural networks, the interplay of which controls all body functions. Synapses, the key signaling units in the brain, represent yet another level of substantial complexity; they are intricate molecular machines composed of thousands of different proteins. The questions as to how the specificity of synaptic connections in the face of huge neuron and synapse numbers is achieved during brain development, and how the molecular composition of synapses is regulated, have been in the focus of neuroscientists for decades. In PNAS, Yim et al. (1) report that different cell-adhesion proteins of the Slitrk (Slit- and Trk-like) family interact with different cell-surface–exposed protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs), and thereby allow neurons to recognize each other during synapse formation and establish different synapse types.
Scaling and Probabilistic Smoothing (SAPS)

The first part of this paper is essentially a reprint of the solver description from the 2005 competition, as the software submitted this year is identical to the 2005 software. We entered the SAPS variant implemented in the UBCSAT software package [7], the source code for which is freely available at http://www.satlib. org/ubcsat. The only difference to 2005 is that we submit two versions of SAPS, one with the original default parameters [4], and one with a new set of tuned parameters. These parameters have been found using an automatic approach based on local search in parameter space [3]. Section 3 gives a brief overview of this tuning approach and shows very promising performance of the automatically tuned parameters.
Divergent selection for shape of growth curve in Japanese quail. 4. Carcase composition and thyroid hormones

1. Changes in the relative weights of carcase, abdominal fat, breast and leg muscles, and plasma thyroid hormone concentrations occurring during the first 6 weeks of postnatal growth were analysed in males of HG and LG lines divergently selected for high and low relative body weight (BW) gain between 11 and 28 d of age, respectively, and constant adult BW. 2. The second week of postnatal life was a critical age at which the HG males exhibited a relatively faster growth in comparison to their LG counterparts and permanently exceeded LG males in the percentage by weight of carcase, breast and leg muscle. A higher production of muscle tissues was associated with lower accumulation of abdominal fat before sexual maturity. 3. In general, the plasma T3 level of HG quail exceeded that of LG quail. Nevertheless, significant differences were found only at 14, 21 and 28 d of age, that is, in the period during which the highest inter-line differences in relative growth rate were noted. Also the T3/T4 ratio followed a similar trend while plasma T4 level showed no clear and consistent inter-line differences. 4. The results suggest that the selection for the shape of the growth curve, like the selection for body fat, modifies the carcase quality owing to shortening/prolongation of the acceleration growth phase. Individuals with a short acceleration phase of the growth curve are characterised by low carcase quality during the fattening period.
A Visual Analysis Approach to Support Perfective Software Maintenance

Ensuring code quality represents an essential task in "perfective software maintenance", which aims at keeping future maintenance costs low by facilitating adaptations of complex software systems. For this purpose, changes and related efforts have to be identified that imply high positive impact on future maintainability. In this paper, we propose a novel assessment method that applies visual analysis techniques to combine multiple indicators for low maintainability, including code complexity and entanglement with other parts of the system, and recent changes applied to the code. The approach generally helps to identify modules that impose a high risk by causing increased future maintenance efforts. Consequently, it allows for exploration, analysis, and planning of different preventive measures that, e.g., most likely will have a high return on investment. In our tool implementation, we use circular bundle views, extended by the third dimension in which indicators can be mapped to. We have evaluated our approach by conducting a case study based on our tool for a large-scale software system of an industry partner.
Tackling Diversity and Heterogeneity by Vertical Memory Management

Existing memory management mechanisms used in commodity computing machines typically adopt hardware based address interleaving and OS directed random memory allocation to service generic application requests. These conventional memory management mechanisms are challenged by contention at multiple memory levels, a daunting variety of workload behaviors, and an increasingly complicated memory hierarchy. Our ISCA-41 paper proposes vertical partitioning to eliminate shared resource contention at multiple levels in the memory hierarchy. Combined with horizontal memory management policies, our framework supports a flexible policy space for tackling diverse application needs in production environment and is suitable for future heterogeneous memory systems.
Learning non-random moves for playing Othello: Improving Monte Carlo Tree Search

Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) with an appropriate tree policy may be used to approximate a minimax tree for games such as Go, where a state value function cannot be formulated easily: recent MCTS algorithms successfully combine Upper Confidence Bounds for Trees with Monte Carlo (MC) simulations to incrementally refine estimates on the game-theoretic values of the game's states. Although a game-specific value function is not required for this approach, significant improvements in performance may be achieved by derandomising the MC simulations using domain-specific knowledge. However, recent results suggest that the choice of a non-uniformly random default policy is non-trivial and may often lead to unexpected outcomes. In this paper we employ Temporal Difference Learning (TDL) as a general approach to the integration of domain-specific knowledge in MCTS and subsequently study its impact on the algorithm's performance. In particular, TDL is used to learn a linear function approximator that is used as an a priori bias to the move selection in the algorithm's default policy; the function approximator is also used to bias the values of the nodes in the tree directly. The goal of this work is to determine whether such a simplistic approach can be used to improve the performance of MCTS for the well-known board game Othello. The analysis of the results highlights the broader conclusions that may be drawn with respect to non-random default policies in general.
Text Simplification Tools: Using Machine Learning to Discover Features that Identify Difficult Text

Although providing understandable information is a critical component in healthcare, few tools exist to help clinicians identify difficult sections in text. We systematically examine sixteen features for predicting the difficulty of health texts using six different machine learning algorithms. Three represent new features not previously examined: medical concept density, specificity (calculated using word-level depth in MeSH); and ambiguity (calculated using the number of UMLS Metathesaurus concepts associated with a word). We examine these features for a binary prediction task on 118,000 simple and difficult sentences from a sentence-aligned corpus. Using all features, random forests is the most accurate with 84% accuracy. Model analysis of the six models and a complementary ablation study shows that the specificity and ambiguity features are the strongest predictors (24% combined impact on accuracy). Notably, a training size study showed that even with a 1% sample (1,062 sentences) an accuracy of 80% can be achieved.