Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The blazar sequence: a new perspective

We revisit the so called “blazar sequence”, which connects the observed bolometric luminosity to the shape of the spectral energy distribution (S ED) of blazars. We propose that the power of the jet and the SED of its emission are linked to the two main parameters of the accretion process, namely the mass of the black hole and the accretion rate. We assume: i) that the jet kinetic power is proportional to the mass accretion r ate; ii) that most of the jet dissipation takes place at a distance proportional to the black hole mass; iii) that the broad line region exists only above a critical value of the disk luminosity, in Eddington units, and iv) that the radius of the broad line region scales as the square root of th e ionising disk luminosity. These assumptions, motivated by existing observations or by reasonable theoretical considerations, are sufficient to uniquely determine the SED of all blazars. T his framework accounts for the existence of “blue quasars”, i.e. objects with broad emissi on lines but with SEDs resembling those of low luminosity high energy peaked BL Lac objects, as well as the existence of relatively low luminosity “red” quasars. Implications on the possible evolution of blazars are briefly discussed. This scenario can be tested quite easily o nce the AGILE and especially the GLAST satellite observations, coupled with information in the op tical/X‐ray band from Swift, will allow the knowledge of the entire SED of hundreds (and possibly thousands) blazars.
Personality Features in Subjective Cognitive Impairment and Mild Cognitive Impairment – Early Indicators of Dementia

Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to investigate patterns of personality in patients with subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), compared to healthy controls. Methods: We assessed24 patients with SCI, 35 patients with MCI and 26 healthy controls with the self-report questionnaire Swedish Universities Scales of Personality measuring aspects of neuroticism/anxiety proneness, extraversion, and aggression-hostility. Results: Patients with SCI and MCI showed significantly more Somatic Trait Anxiety, Psychic Trait Anxiety and Stress Susceptibility than healthy controls. Moreover, there was a significant increase in Detachment in patients with MCI and a significant decrease in Adventure Seeking in patients with SCI, relative to healthy controls. Conclusions: Patients with SCI and MCI presented specific patterns of personality alterations with higher scores in traits related to anxiety proneness and aggression-hostility and lower in traits of extraversion. In most subscales differences followed a sequential pattern with gradually increasing scores from healthy controls, to patients with SCI and further to MCI. The groups differed in amount and type of symptoms, suggesting that patterns of personality may be related to degree of cognitive impairment.
On the discrete Unit Disk Cover Problem

Given a set of n points and a set of m unit disks on a 2-dimensional plane, the discrete unit disk cover (DUDC) problem is (i) to check whether each point in is covered by at least one disk in or not and (ii) if so, then find a minimum cardinality subset such that the unit disks in cover all the points in . The discrete unit disk cover problem is a geometric version of the general set cover problem which is NP-hard. The general set cover problem is not approximable within , for some constant c, but the DUDC problem was shown to admit a constant factor approximation. In this paper, we provide an algorithm with constant approximation factor 18. The running time of the proposed algorithm is . The previous best known tractable solution for the same problem was a 22-factor approximation algorithm with running time .
The relationship between occupational balance and health: a pilot study

Occupational therapists, physicians and others evince an appreciation of the relationship between balanced lifestyles and health, but there are few studies that concentrate on balance as a key issue. This paper reports on a pilot study that tested the effectiveness of a questionnaire to explore perceptions of occupational balance and its relationship to health. The ultimate aim is to provide information that may assist clients, or the population in general, about potentially healthily balanced configurations of occupation. Using a cluster sampling method and with 146 respondents the results of a questionnaire indicated that, for many of these respondents, perceived ideal occupational balance is approximately equal involvement in physical, mental, social and rest occupations. A correlation between reported good health and the closeness of current occupational patterns to the ideal was statistically significant. These promising results warrant further investigation. Copyright © 1997 Whurr Publishers Ltd.
How firm is our foundation? Current play therapy research.

The present article examines play therapy research since Phillips’s (1985) review. Play therapy’s evidence base remains largely inadequate using specific scientific/ methodological criteria. The most compelling evidence for play therapy’s effectiveness is found for children facing medical procedures, although alternative explanations of the same data cannot be disconfirmed. The present conclusions are considered relative to findings from recent meta-analyses of play therapy research. Suggestions are made for improving play therapy research as well as broad questions to guide such research.
Changes in breast cancer transcriptional profiles after treatment with the aromatase inhibitor, letrozole

Objective The aim of the study was to identify changes in tumour expression profiling associated with short-term therapy of breast cancer patients with letrozole. Experimental design Microarray analysis was performed on RNA extracted from paired tumour core biopsies taken before and after 14 days of treatment with letrozole (2.5 mg/daily) in 58 patients. Changes in expression profile were identified by three different approaches on the basis of frequency of changes, magnitude of changes and significance analysis of microarray. Results No single gene was consistently changed by therapy in all cases. Fifty-two genes, however, were downregulated and 36 upregulated in at least 45 of the 58 cases. In terms of quantitative change, 46 genes showed at least a median 1.5-fold change in expression. Significance analysis of microarray identified 62 genes that were significantly changed by therapy (P<0.0001, 56 downregulated and six upregulated). All three approaches showed that greater numbers of genes were downregulated rather than upregulated. Merging data produced a total of 143 genes, which were subject to gene ontology and cluster analysis. The ontology of the 91 downregulated genes showed that they were functionally associated with cell cycle progression, particularly mitosis. In contrast, upregulated genes were associated with organ development, connective tissue extracellular matrix regulation and inflammatory response. Cluster analysis segregated the patients into four groups differing in patterns of gene expression. Conclusion Genes have been identified which either change markedly or consistently in breast cancer after 14 days treatment with letrozole. These are new important data in understanding letrozole's molecular mechanism of action in breast cancers.
Relationship Between Weights of the Engorged Nymphal Stage and Resultant Sexes in Ixodes scapularis and Dermacentor variabilis (Acari: Ixodidae) Ticks

Abstract The relationship between weights of the nymphal stage and their resultant sexes in Ixodes scapularis Say and Dermacentor variabilis (Say) was examined under laboratory conditions. Nymphs were fed to repletion on laboratory white mice, weighed individually, and held until they molted. Fully engorged I. scapularis nymphs that subsequently molted to females weighed between 3.8 and 6.4 mg (n = 64). Those nymphs that molted to males weighed between 2.0 and 3.2 mg (n = 57). Body weights of engorged nymphs that became females were significantly greater than those of nymphs that became males (P < 0.05). Similarly, the range of body weights of engorged D. variabilis nymphs that subsequently became females was 9.1–15.1 mg (n = 32), whereas those nymphs that molted to males weighed between 3.9 and 13.0 mg (n = 39). Body weights of engorged nymphs that became females were significantly greater than those of nymphs that became males (P < 0.05). This suggests that nymphs of both species that become females presumably imbibe more blood than those that became males.
The Stagnation in Terrorism Research

Despite over a decade of government funding and thousands of newcomers to the field of terrorist research, we are no closer to answering the simple question of “What leads a person to turn to political violence? ” The state of stagnation with respect to this issue is partly due to the government strategy of funding research without sharing the necessary primary source information with academia, which has created an unbridgeable gap between academia and the intelligence community. This has led to an explosion of speculations with little empirical grounding in academia, which has the methodological skills but lacks data for a major breakthrough. Most of the advances in the field have come from historical archival research and analysis of a few field interviews. Nor has the intelligence community been able to achieve any breakthrough because of the structure and dynamic of this community and its lack of methodological rigor. This prevents creative analysis of terrorism protected from political concerns. The solution to this stagnation is to make non-sensitive data available to academia and to structure more effective discourse between the academic and intelligence communities in order to benefit from the complementary strengths in these two communities.
Self-consistent boundary condition for photon diffusion calculation

The photon diffusion equation has been widely used to assess near-infrared spectroscopy of biological tissues. Here, we introduce the self-consistent boundary condition for the truncated boundary into this calculation. This reduces the effect of the boundary on the results, showing that the self-consistent boundary condition is useful for calculations for analyzing optical topographic images.
Direct Evidence for Daily Plasticity of Electrical Coupling between Rod Photoreceptors in the Mammalian Retina

Rod photoreceptors are electrically coupled through gap junctions. Coupling is a key determinant of their light response properties, but whether rod electrical coupling is dynamically regulated remains elusive and controversial. Here, we have obtained direct measurements of the conductance between adjacent rods in mouse retina and present evidence that rod electrical coupling strength is dependent on the time of day, the lighting conditions, and the mouse strain. Specifically, we show in CBA/Ca mice that under circadian conditions, the rod junctional conductance has a median value of 98 pS during the subjective day and of 493 pS during the subjective night. In C57BL/6 mice, the median junctional conductance between dark-adapted rods is ∼140 pS, regardless of the time in the circadian cycle. Adaptation to bright light decreases the rod junctional conductance to ∼0 pS, regardless of the time of day or the mouse strain. Together, these results establish the high degree of plasticity of rod electrical coupling over the course of the day. Estimates of the rod coupling strength will provide a foundation for further investigations of rod interactions and the role of rod coupling in the ability of the visual system to anticipate, assimilate, and respond to the daily changes in ambient light intensity. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Many cells in the CNS communicate via gap junctions, or electrical synapses, the regulation of which remains largely unknown. Here, we show that the strength of electrical coupling between rod photoreceptors of the retina is regulated by the time of day and the lighting conditions. This mechanism may help us understand some key aspects of day and night vision as well as some visual malfunctions.
The impact of needleless connector device design on central venous catheter occlusion in children: a prospective, controlled trial.

BACKGROUND Intraluminal occlusion is common in children with central venous catheters (CVCs). Although multiple factors predispose CVCs to occlusion, reflux of blood is frequently implicated. We hypothesized that use of either a single-valve or positive-pressure-valve needleless connector device would reduce CVC occlusion rates in comparison to a standard device. We further hypothesized that saline would be as effective as heparinized saline flush in preventing occlusion and infection. METHODS CVC lumens were prospectively capped with 1 of 3 needleless connector devices in a 4-group design. Group 1 lumens were capped with a standard device, group 2 with a single-valve device, group 3 with a positive-pressure-valve device flushed with heparinized saline, and group 4 with a positive-pressure-valve device flushed with saline. Data were obtained regarding occlusion and infection rates and user satisfaction. RESULTS Three hundred sixty children with 599 CVC lumens completed the study. Complete occlusion occurred in 19/150 (12.7%) lumens in group 1 in comparison to 2/150 (1.3%) in group 2, 5/149 (3.4%) in group 3, and 6/150 (4%) in group 4 (p < .05). There was a trend toward a 2-fold greater infection rate in group 4. User satisfaction was higher in groups 2, 3, and 4 than group 1 (p < .05). CONCLUSIONS CVCs capped with a single-valve or positive-pressure-valve needleless connector device have lower complete catheter occlusion rates than those capped with a standard device. Heparinized saline flush affords no advantages over saline in reducing occlusion rate; however, there was a trend toward lower infection rate with the use of heparinized saline.
Association of pre-pregnancy weight and weight gain with perinatal mortality

Reducing infant mortality is one of the primary Millennium Development Goals 2015. A lot of effort has been made to reduce infant mortality but it remains high in most of the developing countries and the underdeveloped world. Perinatal Mortality is a cause of great emotional pain and social unrest. The main cause of pregnancy failure in the developed world is obesity but in the under-developed world the main cause remains malnutrition. However, their are a mix of factors that affect pregnancy failure in the developing countries. Pakistan has a very high infant mortality rate which stands at 78 deaths per 1000 births. The reasons for this are many including lack of proper healthcare. This is because of a severe shortage of healthcare professionals and specialists in Pakistan. The gap in healthcare may be overcome by leveraging IT to provide automated healthcare. In this paper, we show how machine learning may be used to predict perinatal failure. We examine the relationship between pre-pregnancy weight, weight gain during pregnancy and the body mass index (BMI) to investigate how they relate to foetal failure. We employ the K Nearest Neighbor (K-NN) technique to automatically differentiate between successful and failed pregnancies. Our method is able to predict the the outcome of a pregnancy with about 95% accuracy.
Evidence for Functional Differences between Entopeduncular Nucleus and Substantia Nigra: Effects of APV (DL‐2‐amino‐5‐phosphonovaleric acid) Microinfusion on Reaction Time Performance in the Rat

Overactivity of the excitatory amino acid outputs of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) has recently been found to be one of the cascade of subsequent disruptions caused by nigrostriatal dopaminergic degeneration in Parkinson's disease. The respective contribution of the excitatory glutamatergic output structures of the STN [i.e. the globus pallidus (GP), entopeduncular nucleus (EP) and substantia nigra pars reticulata (SNr)] to the control of movement is not known, however. To investigate further the function of glutamatergic transmission through NMDA receptor subtypes in these three structures, the effects of discrete local infusion of a competitive receptor antagonist, DL‐2‐amino‐5‐phosphonovaleric acid (APV), into the EP, GP and SNr were tested in rats performing a reaction time task. Bilateral infusion of APV into the different output structures of the STN differentially impaired the performance of rats trained to release a lever after the onset of a visual stimulus within a time limit to obtain a food reward. Infusion of APV (0.25 and 0.5 μg/0.5 μl) into the SNr was found to induce behavioural deficits characterized by a dramatic increase in the number of premature lever releases and decreased mean reaction time. In contrast, the infusion of APV at a dose of 0.25 μg into the GP or EP was found to induce a motor initiation deficit characterized by an increased number of delayed responses (lever release after the time limit) and increased mean reaction time. At a dose of 0.5 μg, a premature responding deficit was added to the previous motor impairment. Interestingly, when APV was infused simultaneously into the GP and SNr in the same animals, the behavioural effects tended to be similar to those observed after a single infusion into the SNr. Altogether, these results reveal that the different functional weight of the three main output pathways originating at the STN level is t.o. The behavioural deficits induced by NMDA receptor blockade in the SNr were similar to those observed previously after a neurotoxic lesion of the STN, suggesting that NMDA receptors in this structure play a major role as a functional output of the STN. Furthermore, regarding the differential effects produced by the same dose of APV in the SNr and the EP, these two structures, which are classically believed to be functionally linked should not be considered as the same functional entity in the organization of basal ganglia outflow.
Cooperative particle swarm optimizer with improved elimination mechanism for global optimization

This paper develops a new elimination mechanism strategy to improve the performance of cooperative particle swarm optimizer with elimination mechanism (CPSO-EM) algorithm which is proposed to extract better vector elements by analyzing features of cooperative particle swarm optimizer (CPSO). The extracting method is simple and has the potential to be improved. The proposed cooperative particle swarm optimizer with improved elimination mechanism (CPSO-IEM) makes two main changes in order to extract useful elements from elimination mechanism (EM) effectively. These changes not only increase the diversity of solution vectors which are stored in EM, but also improve the performance of cooperative particle swarm optimizer (CPSO) which is treated as a basic operator in CPSO-IEM. Experimental studies on a set of test functions show that CPSO-EM exhibits better performance than several other peer algorithms in solving nonseparable multimodal problems.
Potential disease transmission from wild geese and swans to livestock, poultry and humans: a review of the scientific literature from a One Health perspective

ABSTRACT There are more herbivorous waterfowl (swans and geese) close to humans, livestock and poultry than ever before. This creates widespread conflict with agriculture and other human interests, but also debate about the role of swans and geese as potential vectors of disease of relevance for human and animal health. Using a One Health perspective, we provide the first comprehensive review of the scientific literature about the most relevant viral, bacterial, and unicellular pathogens occurring in wild geese and swans. Research thus far suggests that these birds may play a role in transmission of avian influenza virus, Salmonella, Campylobacter, and antibiotic resistance. On the other hand, at present there is no evidence that geese and swans play a role in transmission of Newcastle disease, duck plague, West Nile virus, Vibrio, Yersinia, Clostridium, Chlamydophila, and Borrelia. Finally, based on present knowledge it is not possible to say if geese and swans play a role in transmission of Escherichia coli, Pasteurella, Helicobacter, Brachyspira, Cryptosporidium, Giardia, and Microsporidia. This is largely due to changes in classification and taxonomy, rapid development of identification methods and lack of knowledge about host specificity. Previous research tends to overrate the role of geese and swans as disease vectors; we do not find any evidence that they are significant transmitters to humans or livestock of any of the pathogens considered in this review. Nevertheless, it is wise to keep poultry and livestock separated from small volume waters used by many wild waterfowl, but there is no need to discourage livestock grazing in nature reserves or pastures where geese and swans are present. Under some circumstances it is warranted to discourage swans and geese from using wastewater ponds, drinking water reservoirs, and public beaches. Intensified screening of swans and geese for AIV, West Nile virus and anatid herpesvirus is warranted.
The role of interpersonal factors in the application of computer-based training in an industrial setting

This study measures the impact of training content validity, opportunity to use learning, and four interpersonal support factors on supervisory ratings of workplace application of standard operating procedures learned from computer-based training. After controlling for learning and motivation to transfer, a hierarchical regression analysis showed that content validity, supervisor support variables (supervisor sanctions, supervisor support) and coworker support variables (peer support, change resistance) produced significant increments in explained variance in performance ratings. In the full regression model, content validity, peer support, change resistance and supervisor sanctions emerged as significant predictors of performance ratings (R2 = .43). The findings underscore the value of establishing valid training content and cultivating supervisor and co-worker support for the transfer of workplace learning.
Galaxy pairs in the 2dF survey — I. Effects of interactions on star formation in the field

We study galaxy pairs (GPs) in the field selected from the 100-K public release of the Two Degree Field (2dF) galaxy redshift survey. Our analysis provides a well-defined sample of 1258 GPs, a large data base suitable forstatistical studies of galaxy interactions in the local Universe, z ≤ 0.1. GPs were selected by radial velocity (AV) and projected separation (rp) criteria determined by analysing the star-formation activity within neighbours. We have excluded pairs in high-density regions by removing galaxies in groups and clusters. We analyse the star-formation activity in the pairs as a function of both relative projected distance and relative radial velocity. We found power-law relations for the mean star-formation birth parameter and equivalent widths of the galaxies in pairs as a function of rp and Δ V. We find that star formation in GPs is significantly enhanced over that of isolated galaxies with similar redshifts in the field for r p < 25 h - 1 kpc and AV < 100 km s - 1 . We detected that, when compared to isolated galaxies of similar luminosity and redshift distribution, the effects of having a companion are more significant on the star-formation activity of bright galaxies in pairs, unless the pairs are formed by similar luminosity galaxies. In this case, the star formation is enhanced in both components. The ratio between the fractions of star-forming galaxies in pairs and in isolation is a useful tool to unveil the effects of having a close companion. We found that about 50 per cent of GPs do not show signs of important star-formation activity (independently of their luminosities), supporting the hypothesis that the internal properties of the galaxies play a crucial role in the triggering of star formation by interactions.