Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
STABLE TWO‐ALLELE POLYMORPHISMS MAINTAINED BY FLUCTUATING FITNESSES AND SEED BANKS: PROTECTING THE BLUES IN LINANTHUS PARRYAE

Abstract. — Motivated by data demonstrating fluctuating relative and absolute fitnesses for white‐ versus blue‐flowered morphs of the desert annual Linanthus parryae, we present conditions under which temporally fluctuating selection and fluctuating contributions to a persistent seed bank will maintain a stable single‐locus polymorphism. In L. parryae, blue flower color is determined by a single dominant allele. To disentangle the underlying diversity‐maintaining mechanism from the mathematical complications associated with departures from Hardy‐Weinberg genotype frequencies and dominance, we successively analyze a haploid model, a diploid model with three distinguishable genotypes, and a diploid model with complete dominance. For each model, we present conditions for the maintenance of a stable polymorphism, then use a diffusion approximation to describe the long‐term fluctuations associated with these polymorphisms. Our protected polymorphism analyses show that a genotype whose arithmetic and geometric mean relative fitnesses are both less than one can persist if its relative fitness exceeds one in years that produce the most offspring. This condition is met by data from a population of L. parryae whose white morph has higher fitness (seed set) only in years of relatively heavy rain fall. The data suggest that the observed polymorphism may be explained by fluctuating selection. However, the yearly variation in flower color frequencies cannot be fully explained by our simple models, which ignore age structure and possible selection in the seed bank. We address two additional questions–one mathematical, the other biological–concerning the applicability of diffusion approximations to intense selection and the applicability of long‐term predictions to datasets spanning decades for populations with long‐lived seed banks.
Reducing Native Advertising Deception: Revisiting the Antecedents and Consequences of Persuasion Knowledge in Digital News Contexts

Building on the persuasion knowledge model, this study examines how audience characteristics and native advertising recognition influence the covert persuasion process. Among a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults (N = 738), we examined digital news readers’ recognition of a sponsored news article as advertising. Although fewer than 1 in 10 readers recognized the article as advertising, recognition was most likely among younger, more educated consumers who engaged with news media for informational purposes. Recognition led to greater counterarguing, and higher levels of informational motivation also led to less favorable evaluations of the content among recognizers. News consumers were most receptive to native advertising in a digital news context when publishers were more transparent about its commercial nature. Beyond theoretical insights into the covert persuasion process, this study offers practical utility to the advertisers, publishers, and policymakers who wish to better understand who is more likely to be confused by this type of advertising so that they can take steps to minimize deception.
SAINT: Handling module folding and alignment in fixed-outline floorplans for 3D ICs

Three-dimensional integrated circuits (3D ICs) offer significant improvements over two-dimensional circuits in several aspects. Classic 3D floorplanning algorithm places each module at one single die. However, power consumption and wirelength of a 3D IC may be further reduced if it contains folding modules or stack modules such as stack memory. Hence, this paper proposes a fixed-outline 3D floorplanning algorithm which can simultaneously handle different kinds of modules such as soft modules, hard modules, folding modules, and stack modules. In order to maintain the shape of a 3D module, our algorithm aligns the sub-modules of a folding (or stack) module such that they have identical coordinates in respective dies. Experimental results have demonstrated efficiency and effectiveness of our approach even in large benchmarks such as IBM circuits.
A New Model Based on Improved ACA and BP to Predict Silicon Content in Hot Metal

A new model based on improved ant colony algorithm (ACA) and Back-propagation (BP) is proposed to predict Silicon content of hot metal in blast furnace. BP algorithm has been widely used in training artificial neural network (ANN), which is an outstanding model to predict Silicon content. BP algorithm has many attractive features, such as adaptive learning, self- organism, and fault tolerant ability. All of them make BP one of the most successful algorithms in various fields. But BP suffers from relatively slow convergence speed, extensive computations and possible divergence for certain conditions. As a new bionic algorithm, the improved ACA has gained very good performance in solving traveling salesman problem (TSP) and other optimization problems. Its properties such as distributed computation, heuristic searching and robustness have well conquered the long convergence speed and premature problem, which are the main deficiencies of BP algorithm. Experiments show the model proposed has good performance in predicting Silicon content of hot metal.
Analysis of Vaginal Microbicide Film Hydration Kinetics by Quantitative Imaging Refractometry

We have developed a quantitative imaging refractometry technique, based on holographic phase microscopy, as a tool for investigating microscopic structural changes in water-soluble polymeric materials. Here we apply the approach to analyze the structural degradation of vaginal topical microbicide films due to water uptake. We implemented transmission imaging of 1-mm diameter film samples loaded into a flow chamber with a 1.5×2 mm field of view. After water was flooded into the chamber, interference images were captured and analyzed to obtain high resolution maps of the local refractive index and subsequently the volume fraction and mass density of film material at each spatial location. Here, we compare the hydration dynamics of a panel of films with varying thicknesses and polymer compositions, demonstrating that quantitative imaging refractometry can be an effective tool for evaluating and characterizing the performance of candidate microbicide film designs for anti-HIV drug delivery.
Intermittent fasting dissociates beneficial effects of dietary restriction on glucose metabolism and neuronal resistance to injury from calorie intake

Dietary restriction has been shown to have several health benefits including increased insulin sensitivity, stress resistance, reduced morbidity, and increased life span. The mechanism remains unknown, but the need for a long-term reduction in caloric intake to achieve these benefits has been assumed. We report that when C57BL/6 mice are maintained on an intermittent fasting (alternate-day fasting) dietary-restriction regimen their overall food intake is not decreased and their body weight is maintained. Nevertheless, intermittent fasting resulted in beneficial effects that met or exceeded those of caloric restriction including reduced serum glucose and insulin levels and increased resistance of neurons in the brain to excitotoxic stress. Intermittent fasting therefore has beneficial effects on glucose regulation and neuronal resistance to injury in these mice that are independent of caloric intake.
A randomized controlled trial of a web-based early intervention for children and their parents following unintentional injury.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this article was to evaluate the effectiveness of an information provision web-based early intervention via a randomized controlled trial for children and their parents following pediatric unintentional injury. METHOD Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 29) or a control group (n = 27) following baseline measurements. Further assessment was taken at 4-6 weeks and 6 months post-trauma event. RESULTS Analyses revealed that children within the intervention group reported improved anxiety, in comparison to a worsening of symptoms for children in the control group. Furthermore, children who had higher baseline trauma scores reported the intervention to be helpful. CONCLUSIONS The intervention showed promising results in its ability to aid child recovery.
Towards a Model-driven Approach for Reverse Engineering Design Patterns

The size and complexity of software systems is rapidly increasing. Meanwhile, the ability to understand and maintain such systems is decreasing almost as fast. Model Driven Engineering (MDE) promotes the notion of modeling to cope with software complexity; in this paper we report on our research that utilizes ontological modeling for understanding complex software systems. We focus the discussion on recovering design pattern information from source code. We thus argue that an effective recovery approach needs to utilize semantic reasoning to properly match an ontological representation of both: conceptual source code knowledge and design pattern descriptions. Since design patterns can take different forms when implemented in code, we argue that hardcoding their descriptions limits the flexibility and usability of a detection mechanism.
CRF Based Frontier Detection using Monocular Camera

Frontier detection is a critical component in indoor mobile robot exploration, wherein the robot decides the next best location to move in order to continue with its mapping process. All frontier detection algorithms to the best of our knowledge require 3D locations of occupied regions as its input. In a monocular setting this entails a backend VSLAM algorithm that reconstructs the scene as the robot moves. Most monocular SLAM algorithms however provide sparse scene reconstruction from which frontiers cannot be reliably detected and estimated. In this effort we provide an alternate method of detecting frontiers during the course of robot motion that circumvents the requirement of dense mapping. Based on the observation that frontiers typically occur around vertical edges of walls, doors or tables we propose a novel linear chain CRF formulation that is able to detect the presence or absence of such frontier regions around such vertical edges. We used cues like increase in number of ground plane pixels and change in the spreading of optical flow vector, around those vertical edges. We also demonstrate that this method gives us more relevant frontiers as compared to methods based on reconstructing the scene through state-of-the art such SLAM algorithms such as PTAM. Finally, we present results in indoor scenes wherein frontiers are reliably detected around wall edges leading to new corridors, door edges leading to new rooms or corridors and table edges that opens up to a new space in rooms.
Design and preliminary experimentation of a continuum exoskeleton for self-provided bilateral rehabilitation

Existing exoskeletons for rehabilitation usually consist of a rigid kinematic chain of various forms. They are often bulky in size and need structural adjustments from time to time to fit to a specific patient. This paper presents a continuum exoskeleton design for bilateral rehabilitation. Its intrinsic flexibility adapts to different patient anatomies passively to provide AAA (Anatomy Adaptive Assistances) to a group of patients without requiring any hardware adjustments. It has a unique symmetric structure which transmits the motions of the unaffected healthy side to drive the affected hemiparetic side, using the design's backdrivability. The design compactness also allows the exoskeleton to be brought home for self-provided rehabilitation exercises. The design concept, kinematics, system descriptions and preliminary experimentation are reported. With this new exoskeleton constructed, clinical effectiveness of this equipment could be evaluated and new rehabilitation strategies could be developed.
Level-of-detail quad meshing

The most effective and popular tools for obtaining feature aligned quad meshes from triangular input meshes are based on cross field guided parametrization. These methods are incarnations of a conceptual three-step pipeline: (1) cross field computation, (2) field-guided surface parametrization, (3) quad mesh extraction. While in most meshing scenarios the user prescribes a desired target quad size or edge length, this information is typically taken into account from step 2 onwards only, but not in the cross field computation step. This turns into a problem in the presence of small scale geometric or topological features or noise in the input mesh: closely placed singularities are induced in the cross field, which are not properly reproducible by vertices in a quad mesh with the prescribed edge length, causing severe distortions or even failure of the meshing algorithm. We reformulate the construction of cross fields as well as field-guided parametrizations in a scale-aware manner which effectively suppresses densely spaced features and noise of geometric as well as topological kind. Dominant large-scale features are adequately preserved in the output by relying on the unaltered input mesh as the computational domain.
Novel Root-Fungus Symbiosis in Ericaceae: Sheathed Ericoid Mycorrhiza Formed by a Hitherto Undescribed Basidiomycete with Affinities to Trechisporales

Ericaceae (the heath family) are widely distributed calcifuges inhabiting soils with inherently poor nutrient status. Ericaceae overcome nutrient limitation through symbiosis with ericoid mycorrhizal (ErM) fungi that mobilize nutrients complexed in recalcitrant organic matter. At present, recognized ErM fungi include a narrow taxonomic range within the Ascomycota, and the Sebacinales, basal Hymenomycetes with unclamped hyphae and imperforate parenthesomes. Here we describe a novel type of basidiomycetous ErM symbiosis, termed ‘sheathed ericoid mycorrhiza’, discovered in two habitats in mid-Norway as a co-dominant mycorrhizal symbiosis in Vaccinium spp. The basidiomycete forming sheathed ErM possesses clamped hyphae with perforate parenthesomes, produces 1- to 3-layer sheaths around terminal parts of hair roots and colonizes their rhizodermis intracellularly forming hyphal coils typical for ErM symbiosis. Two basidiomycetous isolates were obtained from sheathed ErM and molecular and phylogenetic tools were used to determine their identity; they were also examined for the ability to form sheathed ErM and lignocellulolytic potential. Surprisingly, ITS rDNA of both conspecific isolates failed to amplify with the most commonly used primer pairs, including ITS1 and ITS1F + ITS4. Phylogenetic analysis of nuclear LSU, SSU and 5.8S rDNA indicates that the basidiomycete occupies a long branch residing in the proximity of Trechisporales and Hymenochaetales, but lacks a clear sequence relationship (>90% similarity) to fungi currently placed in these orders. The basidiomycete formed the characteristic sheathed ErM symbiosis and enhanced growth of Vaccinium spp. in vitro, and degraded a recalcitrant aromatic substrate that was left unaltered by common ErM ascomycetes. Our findings provide coherent evidence that this hitherto undescribed basidiomycete forms a morphologically distinct ErM symbiosis that may occur at significant levels under natural conditions, yet remain undetected when subject to amplification by ‘universal’ primers. The lignocellulolytic assay suggests the basidiomycete may confer host adaptations distinct from those provisioned by the so far investigated ascomycetous ErM fungi.
Waveguide Truncation Using UPML in the Finite-Element Time-Domain Method

Numerical simulation is an important tool in understanding the electromagnetic field and how it interacts with the environment. Different topics for time-domain finite-difference (FDTD) and finite-element (FETD) methods for Maxwell's equations are treated in this thesis. Subcell models are of vital importance for the efficient modeling of small objects that are not resolved by the grid. A novel model for thin sheets using shell elements is proposed. This approach has the advantage of taking into account discontinuities in the normal component of the electric field, unlike previous models based on impedance boundary conditions (IBCs). Several results are presented to illustrate the capabilities of the shell element approach. Waveguides are of fundamental importance in many microwave applications, for example in antenna feeds. The key issues of excitation and truncation of waveguides are addressed. A complex frequency shifted form of the uniaxial perfectly matched layer (UPML) absorbing boundary condition (ABC) in FETD is developed. Prism elements are used to promote automatic grid generation and enhance the performance. Results are presented where reflection errors below -70dB are obtained for different types of waveguides, including inhomogeneous cases. Excitation and analysis via the scattering parameters are achieved using waveguide modes computed by a general frequency-domain mode solver for the vector Helmholtz equation. Huygens surfaces are used in both FDTD and FETD for excitation in waveguide ports. Inverse problems have received an increased interest due to the availability of powerful computers. An important application is non-destructive evaluation of material. A time-domain, minimization approach is presented where exact gradients are computed using the adjoint problem. The approach is applied to a general form of Maxwell's equations including dispersive media and UPML. Successful reconstruction examples are presented both using synthetic and experimental measurement data. Parameter reduction of complex geometries using simplified models is an interesting topic that leads to an inverse problem. Gradients for subcell parameters are derived and a successful reconstruction example is presented for a combined dielectric sheet and slot geometry.
Design of a High-Speed UART VLSI Library Cell

We present the sampling and decoding algorithm and the VLSI implementation of a high-speed UART (Universal Asynchronous ReceiverTransmitter) library cell to be used in custom or semi-custom VLSI chip designs. Our approach to data recovery, which is based on signal preprocessing and an innovative decoding algorithm, operates with as few as 2 samples per bit time, thus achieving a high communication rate. Using a clock of frequency f MHz, this UART can transmit and receive at a rate of up to f Mbits/s, without any internal multiplication of the clock frequency. The current design, that was submitted for fabrication operates at data rates up to 25 Mbits/s (ES2 1.5 μm CMOS standard cell technology), while extensive simulations for a higher performance technology (1 μm gatearray) verify that our cell operates at data rates up to 60 Mbits/s. We are currently performing post-fabrication testing, and some preliminary results show that the prototypes operate succesfully at the data rate of 20 MHz. The resulting cell is small and flexible, making it suitable to be used as a building block in chip designs. It can serve as an interface between serial asynchronous communication links, or as a building block for fast and inexpensive networks.
Human NAIP and mouse NAIP1 recognize bacterial type III secretion needle protein for inflammasome activation

Significance Our analyses uncover general immunogenic activity of bacterial T3SS needle protein and identify human NAIP and mouse NAIP1 as cytosolic innate immune sensors of bacterial T3SS needle protein. These results, together with our previous studies, establish a complete framework for understanding NLRC4-mediated detection of bacterial virulence products by the NAIP family inflammasome receptors. The inflammasome-stimulating activity of bacterial T3SS needle proteins and the difference between mouse and human NAIP inflammasome also may provide guidance in vaccine development. Inflammasome mediated by central nucleotide-binding and oligomerization domain (NOD)-like receptor (NLR) protein is critical for defense against bacterial infection. Here we show that type III secretion system (T3SS) needle proteins from several bacterial pathogens, including Salmonella typhimurium, enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli, Shigella flexneri, and Burkholderia spp. , can induce robust inflammasome activation in both human monocyte-derived and mouse bone marrow macrophages. Needle protein activation of human NRL family CARD domain containing 4 (NLRC4) inflammasome requires the sole human neuronal apoptosis inhibitory protein (hNAIP). Among the seven mouse NAIPs, NAIP1 functions as the mouse counterpart of hNAIP. We found that NAIP1 recognition of T3SS needle proteins was more robust in mouse dendritic cells than in bone marrow macrophages. Needle proteins, as well as flagellin and rod proteins from five different bacteria, exhibited differential and cell type-dependent inflammasome-stimulating activity. Comprehensive profiling of the three types of NAIP ligands revealed that NAIP1 sensing of the needle protein dominated S. flexneri-induced inflammasome activation, particularly in dendritic cells. hNAIP/NAIP1 and NAIP2/5 formed a large oligomeric complex with NLRC4 in the presence of corresponding bacterial ligands, and could support reconstitution of the NLRC4 inflammasome in a ligand-specific manner.
Discovering the top partners at the LHC using same-sign dilepton final states

A natural, non-supersymmetric solution to the hierarchy problem generically requires fermionic partners of the top quark with masses not much heavier than 500GeV. We study the pair production and detection at the LHC of the top partners with electric charge Qe = 5/3 (T5/3) and Qe = −1/3 (B), that are predicted in models where the Higgs is a pseudo-Goldstone boson. The exotic T 5/3 fermion, in particular, is the distinct prediction of a LR custodial parity invariance of the electroweak symmetry breaking sector. Both kinds of new fermions decay to W t, leading to a tW final state. We focus on the golden channel with two same-sign leptons, and show that a discovery could come with less than 100pb −1 (less than 20fb −1 ) of integrated luminosity for masses M = 500GeV (M = 1TeV). In the case of the T5/3, we present a simple strategy for its reconstruction in the fully hadronic decay chain. Although no full mass reconstruction is possible for the B, we still find that the same-sign dilepton channel offers the best chances of discovery compared to other previous searches that used final states with one or two opposite-sign leptons, and hence suffered from the large tbackground.
Vertical decompositions for triangles in 3-space

We prove that, for any constant ɛ>0, the complexity of the vertical decomposition of a set ofn triangles in three-dimensional space isO(n2+ɛ+K), whereK is the complexity of the arrangement of the triangles. For a single cell the complexity of the vertical decomposition is shown to beO(n2+ɛ). These bounds are almost tight in the worst case.We also give a deterministic output-sensitive algorithm for computing the vertical decomposition that runs inO(n2 logn+V logn) time, whereV is the complexity of the decomposition. The algorithm is reasonably simple (in particular, it tries to perform as much of the computation in two-dimensional spaces as possible) and thus is a good candidate for efficient implementations.The algorithm is extended to compute the vertical decomposition of arrangements ofn algebraic surface patches of constant maximum degree in three-dimensional space in timeO(nλq(n) logn +V logn), whereV is the combinatorial complexity of the vertical decomposition, λq(n) is a near-linear function related to Davenport-Schinzel sequences, andq is a constant that depends on the degree of the surface patches and their boundaries. We also present an algorithm with improved running time for the case of triangles which is, however, more complicated than the first algorithm.