Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increased genetic diversity improves crop yield stability under climate variability: a computational study on sunflower

A crop can be represented as a biotechnical system in which components are either chosen (cultivar, management) or given (soil, climate) and whose combination generates highly variable stress patterns and yield responses. Here, we used modeling and simulation to predict the crop phenotypic plasticity resulting from the interaction of plant traits (G), climatic variability (E) and management actions (M). We designed two in silico experiments that compared existing and virtual sunflower cultivars (Helianthus annuus L.) in a target population of cropping environments by simulating a range of indicators of crop performance. Optimization methods were then used to search for GEM combinations that matched desired crop specifications. Computational experiments showed that the fit of particular cultivars in specific environments is gradually increasing with the knowledge of pedo-climatic conditions. At the regional scale, tuning the choice of cultivar impacted crop performance the same magnitude as the effect of yearly genetic progress made by breeding. When considering virtual genetic material, designed by recombining plant traits, cultivar choice had a greater positive impact on crop performance and stability. Results suggested that breeding for key traits conferring plant plasticity improved cultivar global adaptation capacity whereas increasing genetic diversity allowed to choose cultivars with distinctive traits that were more adapted to specific conditions. Consequently, breeding genetic material that is both plastic and diverse may improve yield stability of agricultural systems exposed to climatic variability. We argue that process-based modeling could help enhancing spatial management of cultivated genetic diversity and could be integrated in functional breeding approaches.
Conductor: orchestrating the clouds

Cloud computing enables customers to access virtually unlimited resources on demand and without any fixed upfront cost. However, the commoditization of computing resources imposes new challenges in how to manage them: customers of cloud services are no longer restricted to the resources they own, but instead choose from a variety of different services offered by different providers, and the impact of these choices on price and overall performance is not always clear. Furthermore, having to take into account new cloud products and services, the cost of recovering from faults, or price fluctuations due to spot markets makes the picture even more unclear. This position paper highlights a series of challenges that must be overcome in order to allow customers to better lever-age cloud resources. We also make the case for a system called Conductor that automatically manages resources in cloud computing to meet user-specifiable optimization goals, such as minimizing monetary cost or completion time. Finally, we discuss some of the challenges we will face in building such a system.
Morphometry, histopathology, and tomography of cerebral atrophy in the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome

Patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) commonly display evidence of gross cerebral atrophy, but its true incidence and pathophysiology in the general AIDS population are unknown. In this study, we measured cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) spaces in 64 consecutively autopsied patients with AIDS, compared them with age‐matched non‐AIDS subjects, and correlated them with the microscopic neuropathology at autopsy. Thirty‐seven of the patients with AIDS (58%) had a CSF space index greater than two standard deviations above the mean of the age‐matched control subjects. CSF spaces were expanded the most in frontal and temporal lobes; ventricular spaces were expanded more than sulcal spaces. Regression analysis between age and the measured CSF indexes showed that practically none of the deviation in patients with AIDS could be explained by age‐related atrophy. Patients with atrophy were much more likely to have human immunodeficiency virus type 1–associated histopathological changes in their brains, but the relationships were too weak to establish the microscopic cause of the atrophy. Measurement of CSF spaces in antemortem computed tomographic (CT) scans from 47 of the patients with AIDS revealed the same regional pattern of brain wasting. CT diagnosis of cerebral atrophy was strongly concordant with the postmortem diagnosis, but its severity was diagnosed slightly more conservatively at autopsy. Thus, quantitative analysis of CSF spaces in a robust sampling of patients with AIDS confirms that cerebral atrophy is a sensitive, common, and frequently subtle indication of central nervous system human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection that may occur independently from any single specific microscopic abnormality. Its presence, severity, and regional pattern are detected with reasonable consistency using CT scanning.
Neuromuscular organization of feline anterior sartorius: II. Intramuscular length changes and complex length‐tension relationships during stimulation of individual nerve branches

The feline anterior sartorius is a long strap‐like muscle composed of short muscle fibers. Nerve branches that enter this muscle contain the axons of motor units whose constituent muscle fibers are distributed asymmetrically within the muscle. In the present study, twitch and tetanic isometric contractions were evoked by stimulating individual nerve branches while muscle force was recorded and intramuscular length changes were monitored optically by the movement of reflective markers on the muscle. Contractions elicited by stimulating the parent nerve produced little change in the positions of the surface markers. Contractions elicited by stimulating the proximally or distally directed nerve branches caused the muscle to shorten at the end closest to the nerve branch and lengthen at the opposite end. Some muscles were supplied by a centrally directed nerve branch whose stimulation produced variable effects: in some cases a portion of the muscle shortened whereas the rest lengthened, but in other cases, the positions of the surface markers showed little change. The intramuscular length changes produced by stimulating single nerve branches were greater during isometric contractions at short whole‐muscle lengths than at long whole‐muscle lengths. The twitch and tetanic length‐tension relationships obtained by stimulating the individual nerve branches were not congruent with the length‐tension relationship produced when the parent nerve was stimulated. At short whole‐muscle lengths, stimulation of a single nerve branch generated only a small fraction of the force that could be generated by the muscle when the parent nerve was stimulated. As whole‐muscle length increased, an increased fraction of total muscle force could be generated by stimulating a single nerve branch. The results suggest that a complex relationship between passive and active elements contributes to the total muscle force and depends on the distribution of active and passive muscle units throughout the muscle. © 1992 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Systemic administration of nitric oxide donor nitroglycerin as an experimental model for migraine headache in rats

s related to the PhD thesis I. Párdutz Á, Vécsei L, Schoenen J Systemic nitroglycerin administration increases nitric oxide synthase-immunoreactive cells in rat spinal trigeminal nucleus: towards a better understanding of the possible role of nitric oxide in migraine? Headache World, London, UK, 2000, Cephalalgia 20: 281. II. Párdutz Á,Vécsei L, Schoenen J Systemic nitroglycerin administration as an animal model for migraine headache 8 Congress of the Hungarian Headache Society, 2001, Cephalalgia Hungarica 8:14. III. Párdutz Á, Vécsei L, Schoenen J The effect of systemic nitroglycerin administration on 5-HT and CGRP innervation of the rat spinal trigeminal nucleus IHC, New York, US, 2001, Cephalalgia 21:400.
Importance of myocardial ischaemia for recruitment of coronary collateral circulation in dogs.

STUDY OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to investigate collateral coronary flow and regional myocardial function following different coronary occlusion protocols. DESIGN Effects of brief left anterior descending artery (LAD) occlusions in dogs (using a pneumatic occluder around the proximal artery) on collateral circulation were evaluated using three different protocols, each producing the same period of pressure gradient across the collateral network: (1) 10 s occlusion X 30 at 1 min intervals; (2) 1 min occlusion X 5 at 1 min intervals; (3) 5 min occlusion X 1. Each protocol was followed by a 10 s occlusion after a further 1 min period. SUBJECTS 14 mongrel dogs of either sex were used, weight 10-21 kg. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Left ventricular pressure, left circumflex coronary artery (LCCA) flow, and subendocardial segment shortening (% delta L) in the area perfused by the LAD were monitored. Collateral blood flow from LCCA to LAD territory was measured as a stepwise decrease in LCCA flow on release of LAD occlusion. During the first 10 s of occlusion, % delta L decreased from 23.6(SEM 2.2)% to 14.2(2.9)%. After protocol (1), % delta L decreased from 23.1(2.2)% to 14.8(3.0)%. By contrast, after protocol (2) and (3) % delta L decreased only slightly, from 22.7(2.6)% to 20.5(2.8)%, and from 22.4(2.4)% to 19.8(2.4)%, respectively. Although collateral blood flow remained unchanged after protocol (1), it increased from 1.6(0.4) ml.min-1 during the first LAD occlusion to 3.0(0.7) ml.min-1 (p less than 0.05) after protocol (2), and to 3.5(0.6) ml.min-1 (p less than 0.05) after protocol 3. Haemodynamic measurements prior to each 10 s LAD test occlusion remained unchanged throughout the experiment. CONCLUSIONS The pressure gradient across the collateral network cannot dilate pre-existing collateral vessels by itself, but ischaemia related metabolites may play an important role in the recruitment of collateral circulation.
Addressing Non-functional Requirements for Embedded Applications with Platform Based Aspect Design

Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) and Aspect Oriented Modeling (AOM) have been proposed as development methodologies when dealing with non-functional requirements for embedded systems, which usually represent cross-cutting concerns in relation to a "functional" application. In this paper, based on the observation that non-functional aspects need to be developed from a system-level perspective, we note that application-level AOP is not sufficient to address non-functional requirements (as it usually ignores execution platform constraints). We then propose a development process that considers AOM in conjunction with two standard development approaches for embedded systems: Model Based Development and Platform Based Design. The proposed methodology is illustrated by means of an example with logical execution time requirements.
Musculoskeletal Disorders among Cosmetologists

A cross-sectional study was performed to investigate the relationships between physical, psychosocial, and individual characteristics and different endpoints of low back, neck, shoulder, hand/wrist and knee musculoskeletal complaints among cosmetologists in Athens, Greece. The study population consisted of 95 female and seven male beauty therapists (response rate 90%) with a mean age and duration of employment of 38 and 16 years, respectively. Neck pain was the most prevalent musculoskeletal complaint, reported by 58% of the subjects, while hand/wrist and low back complaints resulted more frequently in self-reported consequences (chronicity, care seeking and absenteeism). Significant relationships were found between self-reported physical risk factors like prolonged sitting, use of vibrating tools, reaching far and awkward body postures and the occurrence of musculoskeletal disorders at various body sites. Among psychosocial variables co-worker support and skill discretion seem to be the most important reflecting organizational problems and cognitive-behavioral aspects. The study results also suggest that effective intervention strategies most likely have to take into account both ergonomic improvements and organizational aspects.
Cholera-like Presentation in Vibrio fluvialis Enteritis

We describe a patient who presented with cholera-like diarrhea seven days after eating shellfish at a seafood buffet on the Gulf Coast. The patient’s stool culture grew only Vibrio fluvialis on TCBS agar, and his diarrhea and profound acidosis completely resolved within 24 hours of initiating antibiotics. To our knowledge, a detailed case of V fluvialis diarrhea with cholera-like symptoms has not been reported.
Interactive editing of massive imagery made simple: Turning Atlanta into Atlantis

This article presents a simple framework for progressive processing of high-resolution images with minimal resources. We demonstrate this framework's effectiveness by implementing an adaptive, multi-resolution solver for gradient-based image processing that, for the first time, is capable of handling gigapixel imagery in real time. With our system, artists can use commodity hardware to interactively edit massive imagery and apply complex operators, such as seamless cloning, panorama stitching, and tone mapping. We introduce a progressive Poisson solver that processes images in a purely coarse-to-fine manner, providing near instantaneous global approximations for interactive display (see Figure 1). We also allow for data-driven adaptive refinements to locally emulate the effects of a global solution. These techniques, combined with a fast, cache-friendly data access mechanism, allow the user to interactively explore and edit massive imagery, with the illusion of having a full solution at hand. In particular, we demonstrate the interactive modification of gigapixel panoramas that previously required extensive offline processing. Even with massive satellite images surpassing a hundred gigapixels in size, we enable repeated interactive editing in a dynamically changing environment. Images at these scales are significantly beyond the purview of previous methods yet are processed interactively using our techniques. Finally our system provides a robust and scalable out-of-core solver that consistently offers high-quality solutions while maintaining strict control over system resources.
Evidence on Self-Stereotyping and the Contribution of Ideas

We use a lab experiment to explore the factors that predict an individual’s decision to contribute her idea to a group. We find that contribution decisions depend on the interaction of gender and the gender stereotype associated with the decision-making domain: conditional on measured ability, individuals are less willing to contribute ideas in areas that are stereotypically outside of their gender’s domain. Importantly, these decisions are largely driven by self-assessments, rather than fear of discrimination. Individuals are less confident in gender-incongruent areas and are thus less willing to contribute their ideas. Because even very knowledgeable group members undercontribute in gender-incongruent categories, group performance suffers and, ex post, groups have difficulty recognizing who their most talented members are. Our results show that even in an environment where other group members show no bias, women in male-typed areas and men in female-typed areas may be less influential. An intervention that provides feedback about a woman’s (man’s) strength in a male-typed (female-typed) area does not significantly increase the probability that she contributes her ideas to the group. A back-of-the-envelope calculation reveals that a “lean in”–style policy that increases contribution by women would significantly improve group performance in male-typed domains. JEL Codes: J16, C92.
Removing Noise in On-Line Search using Adaptive Batch Sizes

Stochastic (on-line) learning can be faster than batch learning. However, at late times, the learning rate must be annealed to remove the noise present in the stochastic weight updates. In this annealing phase, the convergence rate (in mean square) is at best proportional to 1/τ where τ is the number of input presentations. An alternative is to increase the batch size to remove the noise. In this paper we explore convergence for LMS using 1) small but fixed batch sizes and 2) an adaptive batch size. We show that the best adaptive batch schedule is exponential and has a rate of convergence which is the same as for annealing, Le. , at best proportional to 1/τ.
Die thickness impact on thermo-mechanical stress in 3D packages

In this study, Finite Element Modeling (FEM) is used to predict the stress and deformation induced by packaging and temperature hot spots for 3D-IC packages. The studied packages consist of a stack of two Si dies attached with flip chip technology to a laminate in a ball grid array (BGA) configuration. Three packages were considered in this paper: two molded packages with different epoxy mold compounds (EMCs) and one bare die package without EMC. The impact of the bottom die thickness on the stress and package deformation is investigated. The finite element simulation results indicate that thinning the bottom die will cause larger stress and more warpage induced by packaging. Moreover, temperature hot spots cause larger stress and more deformation for thinner bottom dies. Furthermore, the results show that the stress and deformation caused by processing are much higher than those induced by temperature hot spots.
Thermal modeling of medium voltage cable terminations under square pulses

In this paper, a proposed electro-thermal model of cable terminations is presented. The cable terminations under study are exposed to a square-pulse voltage applied at different switching frequencies. The purpose of the model is to predict the temperature distribution inside the cable termination as a means of determining the location and value of the maximum temperature. The model is based on fundamental heat transfer mechanisms: conduction, convection, and radiation. Two different distribution classes of cable terminations have been examined. A comparison of the simulated temperature rises with actual measurements reveals good agreement.
Współczesne przeobrażenia w podejściu do kariery zawodowej jako konsekwencja zmian zaistniałych w globalnej gospodarce

Great disability of habitat as well as organizations and also accompanying changes which could be observed on the labor market and in the employment area result in emerging new challenges concerning an approach to work and professional career. Constant improvement of the abilities which we already have and acquiring the new ones which will correspond with the requirements of the labor market, creating own professional identity and the ability of real measuring own professional chances on the dynamically changing markets become the requirement of time. The aim of the article is to present the problematic aspects of current changes in approach to professional career as a consequence of changes in global economy, in particular: changes in traditional employment contract on relationship type, new types of current careers and the necessity of building own capital career, own professional identity, employability and changes identification, which in the aproach to the professional career distinguish two generations X and Y. External labor market, unlike in traditional approach mainly internal market, becomes the area for shaping current professional careers. New dimensions of career go beyond organizational space of one employer – have an impact on the frequent changes of organization, shortterm employment contracts, accompanied also by changes in psychological relationship between employee and employer from dependency to subjectivity. It succeeded also in relocating the responsibility for shaping and career development from the organization to the employee, who at the same time becomes the “owner of career capital”, or has knowledge resources and professional abilities. The paper is based on literature studies, survey research and direct interviews.
Psychological Acculturation in a Tri-Ethnic Community

IN A RECENT PAPER BY GOODENOUGH (1964), a distinction is made between the "phenomenal order" of observable events and their regularities, and the "ideational order," or the beliefs, attitudes, and values held by a group's members. In our studies of acculturation, changes in the phenomenal order, since easiest to observe, have received primary attention, while changes in the ideational order, or "psychological acculturation," have been relatively neglected. There is some good pioneer work on which to build, such as Thompson (1948), Vogt (1951), Rapaport (1954), and Caudill and Scarr (1962). But the main thrust of research on the psychological aspects of the acculturation process appears to have focused on the emotionally disturbing influence of culture contact and the level of resynthesis which may occur (Hallowell 1942 and Spindler 1955, for example). Direct psychological acculturation is the focus of this paper: when culturally distinct groups are placed in continuous first-hand contact, can changes in the world view of the minority groups be demonstrated to occur in the direction of those held by the dominant group; and, if so, under what conditions is such psychological acculturation facilitated? This issue has practical as well as theoretical significance, since it is now recognized that aspects of world view widely held in traditional societies may serve as important psychological barriers to effective participation in urban-industrial life (Erasmus 1961; Foster 1962; Goodenough 1963; Graves 1961; Hagen 1962). If so, whatever we can learn about the process of change in such variables may provide a basis for charting effective strategies of planned intervention. THE RESEARCH SETTING
Predicting Parts Demand in the Automotive Industry — An Application of Probabilistic Graphical Models

In this paper, we present an application of probabilistic graphical models to the problem of predicting parts demand in the automotive industry. When the production of vehicles is induced by individual orders of customers and distributed on a large number of factories located in different regions of the world, production and capacity management becomes a very challenging problem to solve. The calculation of parts demand is a complex field with high-dimensional dependency relations, which requires efficient solutions. Based on a Markov network model, we describe a system for item planning and demand estimation, which currently is in the phase of final development and implementation. Many important planning operations are not restricted to well-known propagation algorithms of conditioning (focusing) in probabilistic graphical models, but even more need techniques for model revision and updating. For that reason, the contribution also addresses some conceptual and theoretical work on such extensions.
Compact W-band antenna for polarization diversity applications

This article presents compact millimeter-wave slot antenna arrays that are suitable for polarization diversity applications. The radiating element consists of a cavity that is excited by a coupling slot on a substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) line. The radiating slot is placed on this cavity and can be oriented in any direction to generate the desired polarization. The cavity is designed to resonate in its fundamental mode to achieve compact size that can be helpful to form phased arrays with wider field of view (FoV). Two arrays with orthogonal polarizations, parallel and perpendicular to the array axis, are designed, fabricated and measured to verify the proposed design. Based on the dimensions of the designed one dimensional (1D) arrays, an array factor of six element, two dimensional (2D) array is analyzed to verify that we can have a 120° phase scan in 2D array plane.