Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developmental variation in resistance and tolerance in a multi‐host–parasite system

Summary 1. Organisms can protect themselves against parasitism by reducing either parasite burden (resistance) or damage caused by parasites at a given burden (tolerance), but little is known about resistance and tolerance to multiple parasites among wild animal populations and species. The fitness effects of parasitism can be broken down into two components: (i) cost of parasite exposure, the difference in fitness between organisms that were not exposed to parasites and those that were exposed but not infected, and (ii) tolerance, the change in host fitness as a function of parasite burden. For amphibians, a taxon that is being decimated by disease, knowing which species and ontogenetic stages are least resistant or least tolerant to which parasites would help target research and management efforts. 2. We reared American toad (Bufo americanus) and green frog (Rana clamitans) tadpoles in a common garden environment and quantified survival and trematode burdens after exposure to 20 Echinostoma trivolvis, Ribeiroia ondatrae or plagiorchid trematode cercariae. 3. All three trematodes caused significant B. americanus mortality, but R. ondatrae was the only species to induce significant mortality of R. clamitans and was the most deadly of the parasites. Young tadpoles had greater parasite-induced mortality than older tadpoles. 4. Mortality patterns were driven by B. americanus having lower resistance and a higher cost of parasite exposure than R. clamitans, older tadpoles having higher tolerance than younger tadpoles, B. americanus and R. clamitans exhibiting lower resistance and a higher cost of parasite exposure, respectively, to R. ondatrae relative to the other tested trematodes, and skin-penetrating trematodes inducing a higher cost of parasite exposure than non-skin-penetrators. Host size was not predictive of resistance but was a positive predictor of the cost of resistance and tolerance; however, size alone could not fully account for host differences in tolerance. 5. Interactions among developmental stage and host and trematode species emphasize the plasticity and context-dependency of defence strategies and the importance of considering resistance and tolerance to multiple parasites in wild host species.
A configuration memory architecture for fast run-time reconfiguration of FPGAs

This paper presents a configuration memory architecture that offers fast FPGA reconfiguration. The underlying principle behind the design is the use of fine-grained partial reconfiguration that allows significant configuration re-use while switching from one circuit to another. The proposed configuration memory works by reading on-chip configuration data into a buffer, modifying them based on the externally supplied data and writing them back to their original registers. A prototype implementation of the proposed design in a 90nm cell library indicates that the new memory adds less than 1% area to a commercially available FPGA implemented using the same library. The proposed design reduces the reconfiguration time for a wide set of benchmark circuits by 63%. However, power consumption during reconfiguration increases by a factor of 2.5 because the read-modify-write strategy results in more switching in the memory array.
A novel study design for antibiotic trials in acute exacerbations of COPD: MAESTRAL methodology

Antibiotics, along with oral corticosteroids, are standard treatments for acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). The ultimate aims of treatment are to minimize the impact of the current exacerbation, and by ensuring complete resolution, reduce the risk of relapse. In the absence of superiority studies of antibiotics in AECOPD, evidence of the relative efficacy of different drugs is lacking, and so it is difficult for physicians to select the most effective antibiotic. This paper describes the protocol and rationale for MAESTRAL (moxifloxacin in AECBs [acute exacerbation of chronic bronchitis] trial; www.clinicaltrials.gov: NCT00656747), one of the first antibiotic comparator trials designed to show superiority of one antibiotic over another in AECOPD. It is a prospective, multinational, multicenter, randomized, double-blind controlled study of moxifloxacin (400 mg PO [ per os] once daily for 5 days) vs amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (875/125 mg PO twice daily for 7 days) in outpatients with COPD and chronic bronchitis suffering from an exacerbation. MAESTRAL uses an innovative primary endpoint of clinical failure: the requirement for additional or alternate treatment for the exacerbation at 8 weeks after the end of antibiotic therapy, powered for superiority. Patients enrolled are those at high-risk of treatment failure, and all are experiencing an Anthonisen type I exacerbation. Patients are stratified according to oral corticosteroid use to control their effect across antibiotic treatment arms. Secondary endpoints include quality of life, symptom assessments and health care resource use.
Accurate Time Series Classification Using Partial Dynamic Time Warping

Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) has been widely used in time series domain as a distance function for similarity search. Several works have utilized DTW to improve the classification accuracy as it can deal with local time shiftings in time series data by non-linear warping. However, some types of time series data do have several segments that one segment should not be compared to others even though DTW can naturally warp across those segments. In this paper, we propose PartialDTW distance measure that utilizes domain knowledge about special characteristics of different sections of the data to limit the warping path. The experiment shows that our PartialDTW has much better performance when compare with other well known algorithms. KeywordsDynamic time warping, DTW, PartialDTW, time series classification
A 12–48 V wide-vin 9–15 MHz soft-switching controlled resonant DCDC converter

The presented wide-Vin step-down converter introduces a parallel-resonant converter (PRC), comprising an integrated 5-bit capacitor array and a 300 nH resonant coil, placed in parallel to a conventional buck converter. Unlike conventional resonant concepts, the implemented soft-switching control eliminates input voltage dependent losses over a wide operating range. This ensures high efficiency across a wide range of Vin= 12–48 V, 100–500 mA load and 5 V output at up to 15 MHz switching frequency. The peak efficiency of the converter is 76.3 %. Thanks to the low output current ripple, the output capacitor can be as small as 50 nF, while the inductor tolerates a larger ESR, resulting in small component size. The proposed PRC architecture is also suitable for future power electronics applications using fast-switching GaN devices.
Penile Erection in Men with Spinal Cord or Cauda Equina Lesions

For several decades it has been a widespread belief that individuals with a spinal cord lesion (SCL) or cauda equina lesion are permanently and completely impotent and sterile. Even John Money (cited by Anderson and Cole') implied that paraplegia is sexually totally disabling. Fortunately, many investigations have shown that this is not true. However, Comarr and Vigue2 state that health professionals have been guilty of perpetuating the myth that disabled individuals are asexual; and, according to Anderson and Cole,l many people harbor the belief that a person with some degree of paralysis or deformity is unable to engage in sexual intercourse at all. On the other hand, Weiss and Diamond3 found a positive correlation between their SCL patients' avoidance of a conscious consideration of their sexuality and avoidance of a realistic acceptance of their physical disability. Likewise Lindner4 found that sexually nonfunctioning paraplegics showed decreased ability to engage in vocational training or other gainful hospital occupation and seemed to express their sexual disability symbolically through feelings of insecurity and helplessness. Those who were sexually potent did not have the same difficulty in relating to others. It appeared that maximum rehabilitation and successful hospital discharge had a high positive correlation with sexual potency and were negatively correlated with sexual impotence. The study indicates that sexual functioning is a basic factor among the motivations and dynamics of such chronic physical disabilities as paraplegia. Sexual dysfunction following SCL has fortunately attracted considerable attention from workers in the field, in large part, probably, because many of the people affected by SCL are young, active, and otherwise health^. ^ Modern rehabilitation techniques have given them much greater life expectancy,\nd considerably greater mobility. Preoccupation with future sexual performance occurs early and is quite prominent in the minds of persons with SCL.5 It is a common experience that SCL men may more easily accept their motor deficits, even when considerable, than their sexual problems. Some of these patients even indicate that, if they had the choice, they would rather regain their sex life than their motor function; the erectile dysfunction is a frustrating c o n d i t i ~ n . ~ However, as Yarkonyg pointed out, this kind of statement has not been substantiated by scientific studies. This review will primarily consider the physical aspects related to penile erection in SCL men, and not go into depth with the many other, equally important parts of sexual behavior. Furthermore, we do not distinguish between individuals with nontraumatic SCL or cauda equina lesions (including congenital spina bifida, sequelae after transverse myelitis, spinal cord tumors, and prolapsed discs) and traumatic spinal cord injuries since they have the same erection and fertility problems, although the last group constitutes the majority of the spinal cord-lesioned population.
Fuzzy Logic Based Binary Computation Offloading Scheme in V2X Communication Networks

With the recent development of intelligent transportation systems, vehicles are getting more and more powerful and involving huge number of real-time applications including computation-intensive and delay-sensitive applications in vehicle-to-vehicle communication networks, which are challenging to be processed by an individual vehicle, especially for a legacy one. These resource-consuming computation tasks can be offloaded to another vehicle with idle computing resources for processing. However, it is difficult to select an optimal resource vehicle for each computational task in a dynamic vehicular network where the wireless communication links are lossy and the network topology is time-varying due to the high mobility of vehicles. In this work, we investigate the resource vehicle selection problem, which determines one of vehicles as the most suitable resource vehicle for the current computational task. To this end, a novel fuzzy logic based binary offloading scheme is proposed in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication networks. The proposed scheme evaluates the vehicles within the proximity by jointly considering the computational power, mobility, and link quality between neighboring vehicles based on fuzzy logic to ensure a high task completion rate for binary offloading applications. In order to validate the performance of the proposed offloading scheme, we conducted extensively computer simulations with the real traffic network in Xi’an city in China. As the results show, the offloading scheme expeditiously makes optimal decision in various environments, and outperforms other baseline proposals in terms of average task completion time and task completion rate. The average task completion time is reduced by 37.5%, whereas the best reduction of other baselines is 21.1% in our simulations.
Introducing MegaHAL

Conversation simulators are computer programs which give the appearance of conversing with a user in natural language. Alan Turing devised a simple test in order to decide whether such programs are intelligent. In 1991, the Cambridge Centre for Behavioural Studies held the first formal instantiation of the Turing Test. In this incarnation the test was known as the Loebner contest, as Dr. Hugh Loebner pledged a $100,000 grand prize for the first computer program to pass the test. In this paper we give a brief background to the contest, before describing in detail the workings of MegaHAL, the primary author's entry to the 1998 Loebner contest.
Self-Esteem Maintenance Processes: Why Low Self-Esteem may be Resistant to Change

If most people desire to maximize feelings of self-worth, how do we explain the persistence of low self-esteem? Results from four studies suggest that people with low self-esteem may be less likely to accept positive feedback from themselves than from an outside source but equally likely to accept negative feedback from the self and an outsider. When the self was the source of positive feedback, people high, but not low, in self-esteem incorporated the feedback into their self-views; in contrast, when positive feedback came from a knowledgeable external source, both high and low self-esteem people accepted it. Finally, when self-generated feedback was negative, participants low in self-esteem accepted it. The authors discuss how these findings shed light on the maintenance of low self-esteem.
Vulnerability of natural landscapes to climate change – a case study of Hungary

Climate change is expected to exert considerable influence on natural ecosystems all over the world, though not all ecosystems are equally vulnerable to the changes. In this paper, an assessment framework of vulnerability of natural habitats to future climate change is presented, examining Hungary, Central Eastern Europe as a case study. A climate change impact, adaptation and vulnerability (CCIAV) assessment following IPCC traditions was applied, which operationalizes the concepts of exposure, sensitivity, potential impact, adaptive capacity, and vulnerability for natural ecosystems. Potential impact was quantified for the periods 2021–2050 and 2071–2100 based on regional climate models ALADIN-Climate and RegCM. Although the potential impact of future climate change was predominantly negative on the most climate sensitive forested habitat types of Hungary, for some of the grassland types we experienced positive predicted responses. Loess steppes and annual saline vegetation may thus partially benefit from climate change. The most climate vulnerable Hungarian regions are the Transdanubia (West Hungary) and the Northern Mountains (North Hungary) in terms of natural vegetation.
Maternal Treatment of Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats With Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate Reduces Blood Pressure in Female Offspring

Pentaerythritol tetranitrate is devoid of nitrate tolerance and shows no reproductive or developmental toxicity in animal studies. Recently, pentaerythritol tetranitrate has been demonstrated to reduce the risk of intrauterine growth restriction and the risk of preterm birth in women with abnormal placental perfusion. This study was conducted to test the perinatal programming effect of pentaerythritol tetranitrate in spontaneously hypertensive rats, a rat model of genetic hypertension. Parental spontaneously hypertensive rats were treated with pentaerythritol tetranitrate (50 mg/kg per day) during pregnancy and lactation periods; the offspring received standard chow without pentaerythritol tetranitrate after weaning. Maternal treatment with pentaerythritol tetranitrate had no effect on blood pressure in male offspring. In the female offspring, however, a persistent reduction in blood pressure was observed at 6 and 8 months. This long-lasting effect was accompanied by an upregulation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase, mitochondrial superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase 1, and heme oxygenase 1 in the aorta of 8-month-old female offspring, which was likely to result from epigenetic changes (enhanced histone 3 lysine 27 acetylation and histone 3 lysine 4 trimethylation) and transcriptional activation (enhanced binding of DNA-directed RNA polymerase II to the transcription start site of the genes). In organ chamber experiments, the endothelium-dependent, nitric oxide–mediated vasodilation to acetylcholine was enhanced in aorta from female offspring of the pentaerythritol tetranitrate–treated parental spontaneously hypertensive rats. In conclusion, maternal pentaerythritol tetranitrate treatment leads to epigenetic modifications, gene expression changes, an improvement of endothelial function and a persistent blood pressure reduction in the female offspring.
Heritabilities and phenotypic and genetic correlations for bovine postrigor calpastatin activity, intramuscular fat content, Warner-Bratzler shear force, retail product yield, and growth rate.

To estimate the heritability (h2) of postrigor calpastatin activity (CA), 555 steers were reared and processed conventionally. Breed-types included purebreds (Angus [A], Braunvieh [B], Charolais [C], Gelbvieh [G], Hereford [H], Limousin [L], Pinzgauer [P], Red Poll [RP], and Simmental [S]), composite populations (MARC I [1/4 C, 1/4 B, 1/4 L, 1/8 H, 1/8 A], MARC II [1/4 S, 1/4 G, 1/4 H, 1/4 A], and MARC III [1/4 RP, 1/4 H, 1/4 P, 1/4 A]), and F1 crosses (H, A, C, G, P, Shorthorn, Galloway, Longhorn, Nellore, Piedmontese, or Salers x H or A). Steers were serially slaughtered on an age-constant (across breed groups) basis. Heritability estimates for CA, i.m. fat content (IMF), Warner-Bratzler shear (WBS) force, retail product yield (RPY), and ADG were . 65 +/- . 19, . 93 +/- . 02, . 53 +/- . 15, . 45 +/- . 18, and . 32 +/- . 26, respectively. The genetic correlations (rg) of CA with WBS, RPY, and ADG were . 50 +/- . 22, . 44 +/- . 25, and -. 52 +/- . 37, respectively. The rg of IMF with WBS, RPY, and ADG were -. 57 +/- . 16, -. 63 +/- . 15, and -. 04 +/- . 11, respectively. These h2 and rg estimates indicate that it should be possible to select for improvements in CA, IMF, and WBS. However, selection against CA may be a more suitable approach for improving meat tenderness than selection for increased IMF because the level of genetic antagonism between CA and RPY was not as great as that between IMF and RPY.
The modelling and simulation of static VAR compensator (SVC) system for electric arc furnace with Matlab/Simulink

Electric Arc Furnaces (EAF) are nonlinear and time-variying loads caused to many electrical power quality problems in electrical grids. Nonlinear secondary current and reactive power are the mainly effect of EAF loads for these power quality problems In this study, three phase electrical arc furnace system which is feeding the 60 MVA EAF located in Sivas Iron and Steel Inc.(SIDEMIR) has been modelled with Matlab/Simulink. Electrical arc are modelled as exponatianl-hyperbolik function and random flicker effect are used for the determination od the Flicker effect. In addition to Static VAR Compensator system has been modelled for the inversigation the reactive power copmpansation. Trigger control system has been created for the adjusting the CVS triger angle automaticaly. Performed studies suggest that it may be used in the analysis of power quality problems caused by the electric arc furnace load of this model
Major orbital complications of endoscopic sinus surgery

BACKGROUND The paranasal sinuses are intimately related to the orbit and consequently sinus disease or surgery may cause severe orbital complications. Complications are rare but can result in serious morbidity, the most devastating of which is severe visual loss. METHODS A retrospective review was undertaken of four cases of severe orbital trauma during endoscopic sinus surgery. RESULTS All the cases suffered medial rectus damage, one had additional injury to the inferior rectus and oblique, and two patients were blinded as a result of direct damage to the optic nerve or its blood supply. CONCLUSION Some ophthalmic complications of endoscopic sinus surgery are highlighted, the mechanisms responsible are discussed, and recommendations for prevention, early recognition, and management are proposed.
Screening of Bacteriocin-producing Bacillus Strains Isolated from Domestic Animal Feces for Antagonistic Activities against Clostridium perfringens

The purpose of this study was to isolate and characterize bacteriocin-producing bacteria against Clostridium perfringens from domestic animals to determine their usefulness as probiotics. The feces of cattle and chicken were used as sources to isolate bacteriocin-producing bacteria using the spot-on-lawn method. In total, 900 bacterial stains were isolated from domestic animal feces, and 19 strains were finally selected after determining the inhibitory activity against the pathogenic indicator C. perfringens KCTC 3269. Eighteen strains of Bacillus subtilis and one strain of Brevibacillus parabrevis were identified by 16s rRNA sequencing. Most of the bacterial strains isolated were resistant to 0.5% bile salts and remained viable after 2 h at pH 3.0. Additionally, some B. subtilis strains showed strong inhibitory activity against Listeria monocytogenes. We isolated and screened B. subtilis strains CB 153 and CB 189 from cattle and B. subtilis MSC 156 and B. parabrevis MSC 164 from chickens using probiotic selection criteria such as inhibition activity against C. perfringens and tolerance to acid and bile salts. The isolated bacteriocin-producing bacteria and/or bacteriocin have the potential to be used as probiotics in the livestock industry.
Extending Lagrangian perturbation theory to a fluid with velocity dispersion

We formulate a perturbative approximation to gravitational instability, based on Lagrangian hydrodynamics in Newtonian cosmology. We take account of the ‘pressure’ effect of a fluid, which is kinematically caused by velocity dispersion, to aim the hydrodynamical description beyond shell crossing. Master equations in the Lagrangian description are derived and solved perturbatively up to second order. Then, as an illustration, power spectra of density fluctuations are computed in a one-dimensional model from the Lagrangian approximations and Eulerian linear perturbation theory for comparison. We find that the results by the Lagrangian approximations are different from those by the Eulerian theory in the weakly non-linear regime at scales smaller than the Jeans length. We also show the validity of the perturbative Lagrangian approximations by consulting the difference between the first-order and second-order approximations.
Survey of Solid Waste Management Status in Academic Centers: Case Study in a Military University

Background: Planning and optimum waste management as the first step has need to waste characterization studies including the existing status, quantity and quality (physical composition) of generated solid waste at University. The aim of this study was evaluation of the existing situation, identification of the quantity and quality of solid waste in one of Iranian military universities. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional research was done in one of the Iranian military universities. The status of waste management was determined using self-made checklist (valid and reliable) and site visits and documents analysis. Quantity, quality, and physical analysis of waste was determined by weighting via trained personnel. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 18 software and descriptive statistical methods. Results: Existing situation of waste management which has 58 score was weak in comparison with desirable situation as 112 score. The average weight, capitation and density of the waste were 419 kg/d, 288 gpc/d and 105.3 kg/m3 respectively. Putrescible waste 40.15%, paper and cardboard 13.99%, soft plastics 13.10%, dried plastics 6.35%, wood and plant waste 6.14%, glass 5.64% and ferrous metals 0.82% were the predominant components. Conclusion: Despite separation of valuable dry wastes, waste management status in this university is not desirable. 40% of total wastes were valuable and recyclable. Recycle is a best-recommended procedure, which can lead to volume and capitation reduction and decreasing of collection, transport and disposal costs nearly 50%.