Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nonmotorized recreation and motorized recreation in shrub‐steppe habitats affects behavior and reproduction of golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos)

Abstract Different forms of outdoor recreation have different spatiotemporal activity patterns that may have interactive or cumulative effects on wildlife through human disturbance, physical habitat change, or both. In western North America, shrub‐steppe habitats near urban areas are popular sites for motorized recreation and nonmotorized recreation and can provide important habitat for protected species, including golden eagles. Our objective was to determine whether recreation use (i.e., number of recreationists) or recreation features (e.g., trails or campsites) predicted golden eagle territory occupancy, egg‐laying, or the probability a breeding attempt resulted in ≥1 offspring (nest survival). We monitored egg‐laying, hatching and fledging success, eagle behavior, and recreation activity within 23 eagle territories near Boise, Idaho, USA. Territories with more off‐road vehicle (ORV) use were less likely to be occupied than territories with less ORV use (β = −1.6, 85% CI: −2.8 to −0.8). At occupied territories, early season pedestrian use (β = −1.6, 85% CI: −3.8 to −0.2) and other nonmotorized use (β = −3.6, 85% CI: −10.7 to −0.3) reduced the probability of egg‐laying. At territories where eagles laid eggs, short, interval‐specific peaks in ORV use were associated with decreased nest survival (β = −0.5, 85% CI: −0.8 to −0.2). Pedestrians, who often arrived near eagle nests via motorized vehicles, were associated with reduced nest attendance (β = −11.9, 85% CI: −19.2 to −4.5), an important predictor of nest survival. Multiple forms of recreation may have cumulative effects on local populations by reducing occupancy at otherwise suitable territories, decreasing breeding attempts, and causing nesting failure. Seasonal no‐stopping zones for motorized vehicles may be an alternative to trail closures for managing disturbance. This study demonstrates the importance of considering human disturbance across different parts of the annual cycle, particularly where multiple forms of recreation have varying spatiotemporal use patterns that create human–wildlife interactions.
Automated and portable native code isolation

The coexistence of programs written in a safe language with user-supplied unsafe (native) code is convenient (e.g., it enables direct access to operating system resources), but at the same time it is problematic (e.g., it may decrease reliability and debuggability). This work aims at retaining most of the benefits of interfacing a safe language with native code while addressing its problems. It is carried out in the context of the Java/sup TM/ Native Interface (JNI). Our approach is to execute the native code in an operating system process different than that of the safe language application. A technique presented in this paper accomplishes this transparently, automatically,, and without sacrificing any of the JNI functionality. No changes to the Java virtual machine (JVM/sup TM/) or its runtime are necessary. The resulting prototype does not depend on a particular implementation of the JVM, and is highly portable across hardware architectures and operating systems. This approach can be used to improve reliability of applications consisting of a mix of safe and native code and to facilitate debugging them.
Impact of immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome on antiretroviral therapy adherence

Objective We determined the impact of immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS) on antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence in a cohort of 274 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected South African adults initiating ART. Methods We carried out a secondary analysis of data from a randomized controlled trial of partially supervised ART in Cape Town, South Africa. Monthly pill count adherence, viral suppression (HIV viral load < 50 c/mL), and IRIS events were documented. Poisson regression was used to identify variables associated with ART adherence below the median in the first 6 months of ART. Results We enrolled 274 patients: 58% women, median age 34 years, median CD4 count 98 cells/μL, 46% World Health Organization clinical stage IV, and 40% on treatment for tuberculosis (TB). IRIS and TB-IRIS developed in 8.4% and 6.6% of patients, respectively. The median cumulative adherence at 6 months for those with an IRIS event vs no IRIS was 95.5% vs 98.2% (P = 0.04). Although not statistically significant, patients developing IRIS had a lower 6-month viral load suppression than those without IRIS (68% vs 80%, P = 0.32). ART adherence below the median of 98% was independently associated with alcohol abuse (relative risk [RR] 1.5; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.2–1.9; P = 0.003) and IRIS events (RR 1.7; 95% CI 1.2–2.2; P = 0.001). Conclusion Although IRIS events were associated with slightly lower adherence rates, overall adherence to ART remained high in this study population. Concerns about IRIS should not deter clinicians from early ART initiation.
Teaching the Foundations of Education: A Developmental Perspective

The Education Department at La Salle University in Philadelphia has restructured its teacher preparation program around the principles of human growth and development. Instructors teaching the foundations courses are encouraged to stress developmental principles through the application of four themes: (a) Educational Practice in Developmental Perspective, (b) Image of the Child in Developmental Perspective, (c) Educational Theory in Developmental Perspective, and (d) Educational Language in Developmental Perspective. The focus and coherence of foundations courses approached according to these themes would be improved, especially because these courses are frequently weakened by
Physical principles driven joint evaluation of multiple f0 hypotheses

This article is concerned with the estimation of fundamental frequencies in polyphonic signals for the case when the number of sources is known. We propose a new method for joint evaluation of multipleF0 hypotheses based on three physical principles: harmonicity, spectral smoothness and synchronous amplitude evolution within a single source, which are closely related to source segregation in auditory scene analysis. Given the observed spectrum a set of hypothetic partial sequences is derived and an optimal assignment of the observed peaks to the hypothetic sources and noise is performed. Hypothetic partial sequences are then evaluated by a new score function which formulates the guiding principles in a mathematical manner. The algorithm has been tested on a large collection of artificially mixed polyphonic samples and the encouraging results demonstrate the competitive performance of the proposed method.
Prenatal Exposure to Perfluorooctanoate and Risk of Overweight at 20 Years of Age: A Prospective Cohort Study

Background: Perfluoroalkyl acids are persistent compounds used in various industrial -applications. Of these compounds, perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) is currently detected in humans worldwide. A recent study on low-dose developmental exposure to PFOA in mice reported increased weight and elevated biomarkers of adiposity in postpubertal female offspring. Objective: We examined whether the findings of increased weight in postpubertal female mice could be replicated in humans. Methods: A prospective cohort of 665 Danish pregnant women was recruited in 1988–1989 with offspring follow-up at 20 years. PFOA was measured in serum from gestational week 30. Offspring body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference were recorded at follow-up (n = 665), and biomarkers of adiposity were quantified in a subset (n = 422) of participants. Results: After adjusting for covariates, including maternal pre-pregnancy BMI, smoking, education, and birth weight, in utero exposure to PFOA was positively associated with anthropometry at 20 years in female but not male offspring. Adjusted relative risks comparing the highest with lowest quartile (median: 5.8 vs. 2.3 ng/mL) of maternal PFOA concentration were 3.1 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.4, 6.9] for overweight or obese (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2) and 3.0 (95% CI: 1.3, 6.8) for waist circumference > 88 cm among female offspring. This corresponded to estimated increases of 1.6 kg/m2 (95% CI: 0.6, 2.6) and 4.3 cm (95% CI: 1.4, 7.3) in average BMI and waist circumference, respectively. In addition, maternal PFOA concentrations were positively associated with serum insulin and leptin levels and inversely associated with adiponectin levels in female offspring. Similar associations were observed for males, although point estimates were less precise because of fewer observations. Maternal perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctane sulfonamide (PFOSA), and perfluorononanoate (PFNA) concentrations were not independently associated with offspring anthropometry at 20 years. Conclusions: Our findings on the effects of low-dose developmental exposures to PFOA are in line with experimental results suggesting obesogenic effects in female offspring at 20 years of age.
Thin-slicing study of the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene and the evaluation and expression of the prosocial disposition

Individuals who are homozygous for the G allele of the rs53576 SNP of the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene tend to be more prosocial than carriers of the A allele. However, little is known about how these differences manifest behaviorally and whether they are readily detectable by outside observers, both critical questions in theoretical accounts of prosociality. In the present study, we used thin-slicing methodology to test the hypotheses that (i) individual differences in rs53576 genotype predict how prosocial observers judge target individuals to be on the basis of brief observations of behavior, and (ii) that variation in targets’ nonverbal displays of affiliative cues would account for these judgment differences. In line with predictions, we found that individuals homozygous for the G allele were judged to be more prosocial than carriers of the A allele. These differences were completely accounted for by variations in the expression of affiliative cues. Thus, individual differences in rs53576 are associated with behavioral manifestations of prosociality, which ultimately guide the judgments others make about the individual.
Paraquat and Parkinson's disease

To the Editor: Paraquat is structurally similar to the active metabolite of MPTP (1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium or MPP+) and could be an environmental toxin that causes parkinsonism. ’ Kollerz offered cogent reasons why paraquat is unlikely to play a role in the etiology of Parkinson’s disease: eg, paraquat is a charged molecule unlikely to penetrate the blood-brain barrier, and paraquat is not metabolized by hepatic enzymes to a species more likely to gain access to the brain. However, paraquat can be reduced outside the body with strong reducing agents. Reduction of paraquat results in an uncharged and more lipophilic molecule that, like MPTP, can penetrate the blood-brain barrier. One such reducing agent is sodium borohydrate, which is used by forensic chemists to measure paraquat levels in body fluids.3 Furthermore, other more common strong reducing agents, such as ascorbic acid, might transform paraquat into such a compound. Comparison of the published redox potentials of ascorbic acid (+ 0.127 V at pH 5.0) and paraquat (-0.446 V at pH 7.0) indicates that ascorbic acid is a strong enough reducing agent to convert paraquat into a more lipophilic compound. ‘ Furthermore, large enough doses of paraquat do cause cerebral damage, although those patients are unlikely to sunrive.5 Koller states there are no reports from animal or human studies of paraquat-induced parkinsonism. We have examined a 32-year-old citrus farmer who worked with paraquat for 15 years. Several years ago, he developed clumsiness, stiffness, and intermittent tremor of the left arm that were comparable with Parkinson’s disease. Wilson’s disease, designer drug abuse, and other causes of extrapyramidal syndromes were excluded. The disorder responded well to Sinemet therapy and worsened when the medication was discontinued. There was no family history of any neurologic disorder. Although an epidemiologic study of workers using paraquat failed to reveal cases of parkinsonism,6 the study was done before the description of MPTP-induced parkinsonism, and neurologic complications associated with paraquat were not particularly sought. As Dr. Koller notes, there are no animal models of paraquat-induced parkinsonism, but one should be reminded that MPTP also failed to produce parkinsonism in some species. Absence of reports of paraquat-induced parkinsonism in animals should not dissuade the investigator from further search. We are presently studying whether paraquat selectively destroys dopamine neurons in culture. We agree with Dr. Koller that at the moment there is no evidence that paraquat causes Parkinson’s disease, but contrary to Dr. Koller, we are not yet ready to dismiss the possibility that it may produce damage to dopaminergic neurons in certain exposed individuals.
Survey of patients with granular, lattice, avellino, and Reis-Bücklers corneal dystrophies for mutations in the BIGH3 and gelsolin genes.

OBJECTIVES To search for novel mutations that cause corneal stromal dystrophies and to confirm or revise the clinical diagnosis of patients with these mutations. PATIENTS Through review of the records of the Cogan Eye Pathology Laboratory at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, and of clinical records, we ascertained 14 unrelated patients with the clinical or histopathologic diagnosis of granular (3 cases), Avellino (5 cases), lattice (5 cases), or Reis-Bücklers (1 case) corneal dystrophy. METHODS Clinical records and histopathologic findings of the index patients and their relatives were reviewed. Patients and selected relatives donated a blood sample from which leukocyte DNA was purified and assayed for mutations in the BIGH3 gene and, in 2 patients, the gelsolin gene, using the polymerase chain reaction and direct genomic sequencing. RESULTS All index patients with the diagnosis of granular dystrophy or Avellino dystrophy had the missense mutation Arg555Trp or Arg124His, respectively, previously reported in the BIGH3 gene. Of the 5 index patients with a prior diagnosis of lattice dystrophy, 2 had the originally reported lattice mutation (Arg124Cys) in the BIGH3 gene, 1 had a more recently reported missense mutation (His626Arg) in the same gene, 1 had the missense mutation Asp187Asn in the gelsolin gene, and 1 had no detected mutation in either gene. Affected members of the family with Reis-Bücklers dystrophy did not carry the previously reported mutations Arg555Gln or Arg124Leu but instead carried a novel missense mutation Gly623Asp in the BIGH3 gene. CONCLUSIONS Molecular genetic analysis can improve the accuracy of diagnosis of patients with corneal dystrophies. Two patients with a prior diagnosis of lattice corneal dystrophy had their diagnosis changed to gelsolin-related amyloidosis (1 case) or secondary, nonhereditary localized amyloidosis (1 case). A novel mutation in the BIGH3 gene that causes Reis-Bücklers dystrophy was uncovered through this analysis, and another recently reported novel mutation was encountered. These findings serve to expand our knowledge of the spectrum of pathogenic mutations in BIGH3.
Knockdown of Long Noncoding RNA LINC00152 Suppresses Cellular Proliferation and Invasion in Glioma Cells by Regulating miR-4775.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important role in various biological properties of glioma cells. Herein we aimed to elucidate the function and the possible molecular mechanisms of long intergenic noncoding RNA 152 (LINC00152) in glioma cells. Relative expressions of LINC00152, miR-4775, and CDK6 in U-118 MG cells were regulated by transfections. Thereafter, cell viability, migration, invasion, and apoptosis were analyzed by CCK-8, Transwell, and flow cytometry assays. Dual-Luciferase Reporter Assay was conducted to validate the target genes of LINC00152 and miR-4775. Expression of components of the signal pathways were detected by Western blot. The results showed that LINC00152 knockdown significantly suppressed cell viability, migration, and invasion and induced apoptosis in vitro. Additionally, LINC00152 functioned as a molecular sponge for miR-4775, and inhibition of miR-4775 reversed the tumor-suppressive effects of LINC00152 knockdown on glioma cells. Furthermore, CDK6 was confirmed to be a target of miR-4775, and overexpression of CDK6 reduced apoptosis and abolished the inhibitory effects of miR-4775 overexpression on cell viability, migration, and invasion. Overexpression of CDK6 activated the PI3K/AKT/MAPK and Notch signal pathways. Overall, these findings demonstrate that LINC00152 plays an oncogenic role in glioma cells by regulation of miR-4775, which may therefore be a potential therapeutic target for glioma.
A New Technique for Frame Synchronization of OFDM Systems

Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is a well known multi-carrier digital modulation scheme in which a transmitted data is split into multiple streams that are modulated at different frequencies. The OFDM system is very sensitive to frame and frequency synchronization errors. In this paper, we propose a new OFDM preamble for accurate frame synchronization of OFDM systems. The preamble is generated by loading the second half of the subcarriers of the preamble with the complex conjugate of the PN (Pseudo random sequence) data loaded onto the first half of the subcarriers in frequency domain. By using the proposed preamble, a frame synchronization method for OFDM systems is described. And, it is shown that the proposed frame synchronization method yields sharp peak at the frame boundary and is independent of carrier frequency offset. Simulations are conducted for AWGN and frequency selective channels to demonstrate the performance of the proposed method. Finally, proposed method is compared with the existing methods and shown that it shows superior performance in severe fading channels.
Comparative study of higher order sliding mode controllers

The standard sliding mode control (SMC) lads, generally, to the appearing of an undesirable chattering phenomenon to solve this problem we develop a novel approach of higher order sliding mode control (HOSMC). The proposed procedure provides an exponential stability on the sliding surface and guarantees the robustness against uncertainties and external matched disturbances. In this paper, and to show the good performances of the new design scheme we present a comparative study between three well known techniques of HOSMC in literature with our approach. Numerical simulations are developed to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Die Uhr im Hypothalamus

Zusammenfassung Der vorliegende Beitrag befasst sich auf der Grundlage tierexperimenteller Daten mit neurobiologischen Grundlagen des zirkadianen Systems und gibt einen kurzen Ausblick auf pathophysiologische Aspekte. Das zirkadiane System steuert zahlreiche rhythmische Körperfunktionen. Der Schrittmacher des zirkadianen Systems der Säugetiere und des Menschen ist der Nucleus suprachiasmaticus (SCN) des Hypothalamus, der durch transkriptional/translationale Rückkopplungsschleifen zwischen Uhrengenen und ihren Proteinprodukten einen endogenen Rhythmus mit einer Periodenlänge von ca. 24 Stunden generiert. Dieser endogene, zirkadiane Rhythmus wird durch Umweltreize, als Zeitgeber bezeichnet, mit dem Tag-Nacht-Rhythmus synchronisiert. Der wichtigste Zeitgeber ist der Hell-Dunkelwechsel, der von verschiedenen Photorezeptortypen in der Netzhaut wahrgenommen und über den retinohypothalamischen Trakt an den SCN übertragen wird. Die “zentrale” Uhr im SCN vermittelt ihre Signale über neuroendokrine und neuronale Mechanismen an “periphere” Oszillatoren, die sowohl im Zentralnervensystem als auch in der Körperperipherie lokalisiert sind. Mäuse mit molekulargenetischen Veränderungen des zirkadianen Systems zeigen Schlafstörungen, Veränderungen im Gehalt von Neurotransmittern und scheinen suchtanfällig zu sein. In Zukunft wird zu untersuchen sein, ob Polymorphismen der Uhrengene auch mit neuropsychiatrischen Veränderungen beim Menschen einhergehen.
Basal forebrain efferents to the medial dorsal thalamic nucleus in the rhesus monkey

Thalamic efferent connections of the basal forebrain (BF); medial septal nucleus (MS), vertical limb of the diagonal band (VDB), horizontal limb of the diagonal band (HDB), nucleus basalis (NB), and ventral pallidum (VP) were investigated in twelve rhesus monkeys. In five animals, injections of radioactively labeled amino acids were placed in the BF. In four animals, the injections involved different divisions of the NB, HDB, and the most ventral part of the VDB. In those four cases, labeled fibers in the medial forebrain bundle were observed traveling caudally towards the hypothalamus where some turned dorsally to enter the inferior thalamic peduncle. These fibers terminated in the ventral half of the magnocellular part of the medial dorsal thalamic nucleus (MDmc). In a fifth case, the amino acid injection involved most of the MS and the VDB. Labeled fibers traveled caudally from the injection site and entered the stria medullaris. These fibers then traveled caudally before turning ventrally to terminate in the dorsal half of MDmc. To determine which of the diverse neuronal types in the BF gives rise to these thalamic projections, in two monkeys injections of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) were placed into MDmc. Labeled neurons were observed throughout the full extent of the NB, the VDB, the MS, and part of the VP. In order to determine the extent of the cholinergic input to MDmc from the BF, one of the HRP cases was processed for the simultaneous visualization of HRP, and acetylcholinesterase (AChE), the hydrolytic enzyme for acetylcholine, and a second case was processed for simultaneous visualization of HRP, and choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), the synthetic enzyme for acetylcholine. We observed that 30–50% of the HRP‐labeled neurons were putatively cholinergic. In order to determine if the NB projection to MD is a collateral of the NB projection to orbital frontal cortex, one fluorescent retrograde tracer was injected into the orbital frontal cortex and one into MD. This case showed that approximately 5% of the BF neurons that project to MDmc also project to the orbital frontal cortex. These results confirm a significant subcortical projection by which the cholinergic system of the basal forebrain may influence higher cortical functions through the thalamus.