Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The mental health of UK Gulf war veterans: phase 2 of a two phase cohort study

Abstract Objectives: To examine the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in veterans of the Gulf war with or without unexplained physical disability (a proxy measure of ill health) and in similarly disabled veterans who had not been deployed to the Gulf war (non-Gulf veterans). Design: Two phase cohort study. Setting: Current and ex-service UK military personnel. Participants: Phase 1 consisted of three randomly selected samples of Gulf veterans, veterans of the 1992-7 Bosnia peacekeeping mission, and UK military personnel not deployed to the Gulf war (Era veterans) who had completed a postal health questionnaire. Phase 2 consisted of randomly selected subsamples from phase 1 of Gulf veterans who reported physical disability (n=111) or who did not report disability (n=98) and of Bosnia (n=54) and Era (n=79) veterans who reported physical disability. Main outcome measure: Psychiatric disorders assessed by the schedule for clinical assessment in neuropsychiatry and classified by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition. Results: Only 24% (n=27) of the disabled Gulf veterans had a formal psychiatric disorder (depression, anxiety, or alcohol related disorder). The prevalence of psychiatric disorders in non-disabled Gulf veterans was 12%. Disability and psychiatric disorders were weakly associated in the Gulf group when confounding was adjusted for (adjusted odds ratio 2.4, 99% confidence interval 0.8 to 7.2, P=0.04). The prevalence of psychiatric disorders was similar in disabled non-Gulf veterans and disabled Gulf veterans (19% v 24%; 1.3, 0.5 to 3.4). All groups had rates for post-traumatic stress disorder of between 1% and 3%. Conclusions: Most disabled Gulf veterans do not have a formal psychiatric disorder. Post-traumatic stress disorder is not higher in Gulf veterans than in other veterans. Psychiatric disorders do not fully explain self reported ill health in Gulf veterans; alternative explanations for persistent ill health in Gulf veterans are needed.
Large-Scale Trends in the Evolution of Gene Structures within 11 Animal Genomes

We have used the annotations of six animal genomes (Homo sapiens, Mus musculus, Ciona intestinalis, Drosophila melanogaster, Anopheles gambiae, and Caenorhabditis elegans) together with the sequences of five unannotated Drosophila genomes to survey changes in protein sequence and gene structure over a variety of timescales—from the less than 5 million years since the divergence of D. simulans and D. melanogaster to the more than 500 million years that have elapsed since the Cambrian explosion. To do so, we have developed a new open-source software library called CGL (for “Comparative Genomics Library”). Our results demonstrate that change in intron–exon structure is gradual, clock-like, and largely independent of coding-sequence evolution. This means that genome annotations can be used in new ways to inform, corroborate, and test conclusions drawn from comparative genomics analyses that are based upon protein and nucleotide sequence similarities.
The Biology of Pichia membranifaciens Killer Toxins

The killer phenomenon is defined as the ability of some yeast to secrete toxins that are lethal to other sensitive yeasts and filamentous fungi. Since the discovery of strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae capable of secreting killer toxins, much information has been gained regarding killer toxins and this fact has substantially contributed knowledge on fundamental aspects of cell biology and yeast genetics. The killer phenomenon has been studied in Pichia membranifaciens for several years, during which two toxins have been described. PMKT and PMKT2 are proteins of low molecular mass that bind to primary receptors located in the cell wall structure of sensitive yeast cells, linear (1→6)-β-d-glucans and mannoproteins for PMKT and PMKT2, respectively. Cwp2p also acts as a secondary receptor for PMKT. Killing of sensitive cells by PMKT is characterized by ionic movements across plasma membrane and an acidification of the intracellular pH triggering an activation of the High Osmolarity Glycerol (HOG) pathway. On the contrary, our investigations showed a mechanism of killing in which cells are arrested at an early S-phase by high concentrations of PMKT2. However, we concluded that induced mortality at low PMKT2 doses and also PMKT is indeed of an apoptotic nature. Killer yeasts and their toxins have found potential applications in several fields: in food and beverage production, as biocontrol agents, in yeast bio-typing, and as novel antimycotic agents. Accordingly, several applications have been found for P. membranifaciens killer toxins, ranging from pre- and post-harvest biocontrol of plant pathogens to applications during wine fermentation and ageing (inhibition of Botrytis cinerea, Brettanomyces bruxellensis, etc.).
Living on the edge: stress and activation of stress responses promote lifespan extension

Oxidative stress constitutes the basis of physio-pathological situations such as neurodegenerative diseases and aging. However, sublethal exposure to toxic molecules such as reactive oxygen species can induce cellular responses that result in stress fitness. Studies in Schizosaccharomyces pombe have recently showed that the Sty1 MAP kinase, known to be activated by hydrogen peroxide and other cellular stressors, plays a pivotal role in promoting fitness and longevity when it becomes activated by calorie restriction, a situation which induces oxidative metabolism and reactive oxygen species production. Activation of the MAP kinase by calorie restriction during logarithmic growth induces a transcriptional anti-stress response including genes essential to promote lifespan extension. Importantly enough, the lifespan promotion exerted by deletion of the pka1 or sck2 genes, inactivating the two main nutrient-responsive pathways, is dependent on the presence of a functional Sty1 stress pathway, since double mutants also lacking Sty1 or its main substrate Atf1 do not display extended viability. In this Research Perspective, we review these findings in relation to previous reports and extend important aspects of the original study. We propose that moderate stress levels that are not harmful for cells can make them stronger.
Financing Higher Education Institutions in the 21st Century

Excerpt] My remarks today relate to the “Financing of American Higher Education Institutions in the 21st Century”. Although the discussion has some implications for the ability of students and their families to finance college educations, my focus is on institutions of higher education, not on students. I will begin by discussing the growing resource imbalance that is emerging between public and private institutions and then the growing inequality of resources across institutions that is occurring within each of the public and private sectors. As I do this, I will illustrate the implications of some of these changes for the patterns of faculty compensation and faculty turnover that we observe across academic institutions. I will then turn to a discussion of the growing importance of scientific research to universities and the growing costs that universities are incurring for this research. The enormous costs of scientific research are increasingly being born by the institutions themselves and institutions need to understand who actually bears the burden of these costs. Institutions increasingly are hoping that they will generate revenue to support their research enterprise through the commercialization of their faculty members’ research findings, but I shall show that currently very few institutions are generating substantial funding from their commercialization activities. Finally, if time permits, I will conclude with some speculations about the directions in which our American higher education system will evolve over the next few decades and what some of the major financial issues facing academic institutions will prove to be. Much of my discussion draws on research that I have been conducting jointly with a wonderful group of undergraduate and graduate students associated with the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute and my great debt to them for help in preparing these remarks will be obvious to you.
Stock Price, Equity Dependence and Corporate Investment: Evidence from China

Empirical findings from Baker, Stein and Wurgler(2003) for the sample of U.S. firms and Wei, Yuanto (2006) for an international sample of 42 countries (except China) suggest that corporate investment is positively correlated with stock prices. Following Baker et al. (2003), we investigate the relationship between corporate investment and stock prices in the capital market in China on a sample period of 10 years. However, we get a surprising finding that stock prices have little effect on corporate investment, which is different from Baker (2003) and Wei (2006)'s, but similar to the performance of U.S. in 1920s, and supports the notion that the stock market is just a sideshow. It's probably an interim phenomenon in course of reformation in China. Simultaneously, we corroborate the positive effect of cash flow on corporate investment, which is consistent with the result of Baker et al. (2003).
Induced Forests in Regular Graphs with Large Girth

An induced forest of a graph G is an acyclic induced subgraph of G. The present paper is devoted to the analysis of a simple randomized algorithm that grows an induced forest in a regular graph. The expected size of the forest it outputs provides a lower bound on the maximum number of vertices in an induced forest of G. When the girth is large and the degree is at least 4, our bound coincides with the best bound known to hold asymptotically almost surely for random regular graphs. This results in an alternative proof for the random case.
Seismic detection and communication in amphibians

To date, seismic communication has been demonstrated in a single amphibian, the frog Leptodactylus albilabris. Calling males produce both acoustic and seismic signals simultaneously. The inflating vocal sac not only aids in radiating the call into the air, but also strikes the wet substrate generating vertically polarized Rayleigh waves. These animals are highly sensitive to seismic signals (-122 dB rms re gravity) and they alter the timing of their calls in response to playbacks of the seismic component of conspecific calls. Several other frog behaviors have a potential seismic role, including thumping on the ground with the forelimbs and toe-twitching. Acute seismic sensitivities (-90 to -130 dB rms re gravity) have been reported in other amphibians including the frogs: Lithobates catesbeianus, Lithobates pipiens, and Rana temporaria, and the salamanders: Notophthalmus viridescens, Plethodon cinereus (adults), and Ambystoma macularum (larvae). While such sensitivity measurements bypassed the natural coupling of the inner ears to the substrate, amphibians posses an elaborate coupling solution, in which the opercularis muscle connects the Correspondence/Reprint request: Dr. Marcos Gridi-Papp, Department of Physiological Science, University of California, 621 Charles E. Young Dr. S. , Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. E-mail: mgpapp@ucla.edu Marcos Gridi-Papp & Peter M. Narins 2 scapula to the oval window. Seismic vibrations that reach the shoulders through the forelimbs are, this way, transmitted directly into the inner ear. The embryos of amphibians are also responsive to seismic vibrations. Agalychnis callidryas and five other species of phyllomedusine treefrogs with arboreal egg clutches were shown to hatch immediately in response to seismic vibrations produced by predators. We compare the available data on seismic sensitivity in amphibians with data for other tetrapods, discuss the potential relevance of the substrate from which the animals call for seismic communication and identify questions for future research.
Exploration on software complexity metrics for business process model and notation

Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a graphical representation and notation for modeling complex business processes in diagrams. A simple BPMN diagram is easier to understand by all of the business stakeholders than a complex one. It is also easier for the developers to implement the corresponding systems. Complexity metrics can measure the complexity of a diagram. Only a few BPMN complexity metrics are found in the literature as BPMN is a recent development. To propose a new BPMN complexity metric, it is important to find suitable software complexity metrics which can be further adapted to develop a complexity metric for BPMN. This research surveys the existing software complexity metrics and the existing BPMN complexity metrics (i.e. McCabe Cyclomatic Complexity, Control-flow Complexity, and Halstead-based Process Complexity Metrics) to compare their performance and suitability in measuring the complexity of BPMN diagrams. The BPMN diagrams of the business processes of two Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) open-source systems (i.e. Compiere and Openbravo ERP systems) are used in this research. The metrics values obtained are compared with empirical application and code measurement values (i.e. number of form-fields, number of files of code, and number of classes) of the two open-source systems. This research finds that the Halstead-based Process Complexity that has been proposed in the literature is useful in measuring the data complexity of BPMN diagrams. This means that the Halstead-based Process Complexity can be further elaborated to produce a BPMN complexity measure.
A Military Communication Supernetwork Structure Model for Netcentric Environment

Within a net centric environment, military communication networks (MCNs) are mostly characterized by heterogeneous nodes and multilinked relationships between nodes. Traditional graph theory based network structure models are difficult to describe such characteristics of MCN accurately. In order to analyze, design, and build MCNs for a net centric environment, we propose a novel structure model based on super network by extending and integrating Jeff Cares' combat network model and Hans E.keus' Net force Reference Model. The model's mathematical structure is given in detail. The proposed model is able to represent two key characteristics of MCNs, i.e. node's functional types and link's transmission types. Based on the proposed model, the military communication super network can be decomposed into several functional or special sub-networks which are more meaningful in the military background. As an example, a joint operational forces communication super network structure is given to validate the proposed super network model.
The role of mitomycin in the prevention and treatment of scar formation in the pediatric aerodigestive tract: friend or foe?

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the role of mitomycin in the prevention and treatment of scar formation in the pediatric aerodigestive tract. DESIGN Prospective study; institutional review board-approved clinical trial. SETTING Tertiary care pediatric medical center. PATIENTS Fifteen patients; choanal atresia in 5 patients, airway stenosis in 8 patients, hypopharyngeal stenosis in 1 patient, and esophageal stenosis in 1 patient. OUTCOME The efficacy and safety of mitomycin in the prevention of scar formation. INTERVENTION All patients underwent surgical repair of the stenotic area, followed by topical application of mitomycin (1 mL of 0.4 mg/mL) for 4 minutes. RESULTS Ten patients (67%) showed major improvement, 4 patients (27%) showed minor improvement, and 1 patient (7%) showed no improvement. CONCLUSION Topical application of mitomycin can play an effective role in the prevention and treatment of scar formation in the aerodigestive tract.
Explaining the economic performance of nations : essays in time and space

Part I Analytical frameworks for explaining economic growth. Part II Investment, capital stock and saving. Part III Measuring levels of performance. Part IV The roots of economic backwardness. Part V The role of government policy in the performance of advanced capitalist countries. Part IV Confessions of a Chiffrephile.
GLAST and Lorentz violation

We study possible Lorentz violations by means of gamma ray bursts with special focus on the large array telescope of GLAST (gamma ray large area space telescope), where we concentrate on models with linear corrections to the speed of light. We simulate bursts with gtobssim and introduce a Lorentz violating term in the arrival times of the photons. We further perturb these arrival times and energies with a Gaussian distribution corresponding to the time and energy resolution of GLAST. We then vary the photon flux in gtobssim in order to derive a relation between the photon number and the standard deviation of the Lorentz violating term. We conclude with the fact that our maximum likelihood method as first developed in Lamon et al (2008 Gen. Rel. Grav. 40 1731 [0706.4039] [gr-qc]) is able to make a statement on whether Nature breaks the Lorentz symmetry if the number of bursts with known redshifts is of the order of 100. However, the systematic errors caused by unknown mechanisms for photon emission are not considered here, despite the fact that these errors should be the main obstacle to detecting Lorentz violations.
Unsolved Econometric Problems In Nonlinearity, Chaos, And Bifurcation

In an attempt to resolve the controversies that exist within the field of economics regarding nonlinearity, chaos, and bifurcation, we investigate the relevancy to these controversies of a controlled competition among nonparametric econometric tests for nonlinearity and chaos, and we also report on our results with experiments using parametric macroeconomic models to investigate the implications of bifurcation for macroeconomic policy. These experiments are part of an ongoing research project. What we find so far is that existing views on nonlinearity, chaos, and bifurcation in economics are based upon oversimplified views that currently neither can be confirmed nor contradicted with empirical results that are now available. Since these issues are deep and difficult, considerably more research is needed before any serious conclusions on the subject can be stated with confidence. This fact is particularly true regarding the relevancy of nonlinearity, chaos, and bifurcation for macroeconomic stabilization policy.
Research and Design of Intelligent Building Distributed Circumstance Monitor System Based on Wireless Communication

This paper introduces sensor unit of temperature and humidity is connected through 1-wire bus. Single chip microprocessor (SCM) AT89C52 processes measurement signal and drives equipments and it controls wireless transceiver chip nRF401 to complete data transmission between area monitor controller and work central station controller. Up PC is connected with control system though the USB controller chip PDIUSBD12, which the distributed circumstance temperature and humidity intelligent measure system is carried out. Our experiments show that the system temperature measure error is less than plusmn0.4degC, and relative humidity measure error is less than plusmn2%. The experiment results reveal that the measurement system performs well as expected. This paper introduces the system structure and part of hardware/software design in detail. This system can be applied to circumstance measure-regulate and alarm of grain and goods' storage, spinning workshop and library, etc.
Towards Self-Organizing Knowledge Networks for Smart World Infrastructures

The increasing ubiquity of sensing, computing and communication devices is forming the basis of a “smart world infrastructure”, with the potential to offer us panoply of innovative pervasive services. However, it also calls for such services to operate in a situation-aware and fully autonomic way. To achieve this, services would require a high degree of supporting knowledge about the social, computational, and physical environments in which they are situated, as well as self-knowledge about their own functioning. While the technology to acquire these types of knowledge is increasingly available, environments and services can actually get ‘smarter’ only via the availability of properly represented and widely accessible “networks of knowledge”, which can provide – via self-organization – for pruning, aggregating, correlating, the available knowledge, so as to facilitate their exploitation by components and services. In this paper, after having introduced the general vision of smart world infrastructures, we detail our idea of knowledge networks by outlining the characteristics that they should exhibit and by sketching a possible architectural approach for knowledge networks.
Minimum-time motion planning for a robot arm using the Bees Algorithm

The problem of determining the minimum motion time for a robot arm is not new. Several approaches have been successfully proposed to solve this problem. One of these approaches involves generating a fixed number of joint displacements to construct the joint trajectories via cubic spline functions before scaling the travel time to avoid violating kinematic constraints such as the maximum permissible velocity, acceleration and jerk. Conforming to these kinematic constraints is necessary to prevent trajectories that are undulant and normally unsuitable for robotic motion. This paper presents a Pareto-based multi-objective Bees Algorithm to determine the minimum travelling time for a SCARA-type robot arm that takes consideration of trajectory smoothness. The results obtained are better than those reported for solutions using the genetic algorithm (with breeder genetic algorithm operators and the path redistribution with relaxation operator), the Nelder-Mead flexible polyhedron search and the improved polytope algorithm with a penalty function.
Top-k query processing with multidimensional range search

An m-dimensional top-k query (with m search conditions) is primarily processed by scanning the corresponding m index lists in descending score orders in an interleaved manner (and by making judicious random accesses to look up index entries of specific data items). In this paper a new algorithm is proposed that makes use of a data structure that facilitates multidimensional range search. An m-dimensional top-k query can be processed by searching for the data items that satisfies a range of score over each dimension. At every step of the algorithm a new set of ranges (one for each dimension) is specified such that more accurate tuples are added in the candidate top-k set. The process continues till we get the actual top-k data items. The incremented range set is specified with the help of the statistics of the distribution of data items in m-dimensional space. Thus, efficiency of the algorithm very much depends on the proper study and analysis of the distribution of the data items in the m-dimensional space and the data structure used.