Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THE BOTTLENECK BICONNECTED STEINER NETWORK PROBLEM

We present the first exact algorithm for constructing minimum bottleneck 2-connected Steiner networks containing at most k Steiner points, where k > 2 is a constant integer. Given a set of n terminals embedded in the Euclidean plane, the objective of the problem is to find the locations of the Steiner points, and the topology of a 2-connected graph Nk spanning the Steiner points and the terminals, such that the length of the bottleneck (the longest edge of Nk) is minimised. The problem is motivated by the modelling of relay-augmentation for optimisation of energy consumption in survivable wireless communication networks. Our algorithm employs Voronoi diagrams and properties of block cut-vertex decompositions of graphs to find an optimal solution in O(h(k)nk log5k−1 n) steps, where h(k) is a function of k only.
DOCA administration and atrial natriuretic factor in dogs with chronic heart failure.

The chronic reserve for the secretion of atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) was studied in conscious dogs with an arteriovenous (a-v) fistula, a model of high-output heart failure. After the first 7 days of marked sodium retention after creation of the a-v fistula, the animals regained sodium balance for the subsequent 3 wk. This compensatory natriuresis occurred in the presence of significant increases in right atrial pressure and was associated with marked and sustained elevations in plasma ANF and with the return of plasma renin and aldosterone to base-line values. The cardiac reserve for ANF secretion was further evaluated in these dogs with compensated high-output heart failure during additional progressive elevations in cardiac filling pressures induced by 3 wk of deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA) administration. During the DOCA regimen, plasma ANF increased an additional twofold from its high base line. Arterial blood pressure increased by 6-12 mmHg, and plasma renin activity was suppressed. However, the animals consistently retained sodium, and the high plasma levels of ANF were unable to counterbalance the sodium-retaining actions of DOCA. After termination of DOCA, the dogs exhibited a marked natriuresis, and all the hemodynamic and hormonal parameters returned to pre-DOCA control levels. This longitudinal study demonstrates that the cardiac reserve for chronic ANF secretion is well maintained in dogs with an a-v fistula during progressive cardiac volume overload. The present results suggest that the ANF endocrine system may represent one chronic compensatory mechanism to achieve sodium balance in heart failure when there is concomitant normalization of the renin-aldosterone system. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Release Management with Continuous Delivery: A Case Study

: We present our approach on using continuous delivery pattern for release management. One of the key practices of agile and lean teams is the continuous delivery of new features to stakeholders. The main benefits of this approach lie in the ability to release new applications rapidly which has real strategic impact on the competitive advantage of an organization. Organizations that successfully implement Continuous Delivery have the ability to evolve rapidly to support innovation, provide stable and reliable software in more efficient ways, decrease the amount of resources need for maintenance, and lower the software delivery time and costs. One of the objectives of this paper is to elaborate a case study where IT division of Central Securities Depository Institution (MKK) of Turkey apply Continuous Delivery pattern to improve release management process.
Arthrobacter chlorophenolicus sp. nov., a new species capable of degrading high concentrations of 4-chlorophenol.

A micro-organism was isolated from soil which could grow on high concentrations [up to 350 p.p.m. (2.7 mM)] of 4-chlorophenol (4-CP). The isolate, designated strain A6T, was obtained from a soil suspension that had been selectively enriched with gradually increasing concentrations of 4-CP. Strain A6T could also grow on several other para-substituted phenols. Characterization of strain A6T with respect to chemical, biochemical and morphological properties, 16S rDNA sequencing and DNA-DNA hybridization indicated that the isolate is a novel species within the genus Arthrobacter for which the name Arthrobacter chlorophenolicus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is DSM 12829T.
Integrative analysis of sequencing and array genotype data for discovering disease associations with rare mutations

Significance High-throughput DNA sequencing provides an unprecedented opportunity to discover rare genetic variants associated with complex diseases and traits. However, sequencing a large number of subjects is prohibitively expensive. It is common to select subjects for sequencing from the cohorts that have collected genotyping array data. We impute the sequencing data from the array data for the cohort members who are not selected for sequencing and perform gene-level association tests for rare variants by properly combining the observed genotypes for sequenced subjects and the imputed genotypes for nonsequenced subjects. This integrative analysis is substantially more powerful than the use of sequencing data alone and can accelerate the search for disease-causing mutations. In the large cohorts that have been used for genome-wide association studies (GWAS), it is prohibitively expensive to sequence all cohort members. A cost-effective strategy is to sequence subjects with extreme values of quantitative traits or those with specific diseases. By imputing the sequencing data from the GWAS data for the cohort members who are not selected for sequencing, one can dramatically increase the number of subjects with information on rare variants. However, ignoring the uncertainties of imputed rare variants in downstream association analysis will inflate the type I error when sequenced subjects are not a random subset of the GWAS subjects. In this article, we provide a valid and efficient approach to combining observed and imputed data on rare variants. We consider commonly used gene-level association tests, all of which are constructed from the score statistic for assessing the effects of individual variants on the trait of interest. We show that the score statistic based on the observed genotypes for sequenced subjects and the imputed genotypes for nonsequenced subjects is unbiased. We derive a robust variance estimator that reflects the true variability of the score statistic regardless of the sampling scheme and imputation quality, such that the corresponding association tests always have correct type I error. We demonstrate through extensive simulation studies that the proposed tests are substantially more powerful than the use of accurately imputed variants only and the use of sequencing data alone. We provide an application to the Women’s Health Initiative. The relevant software is freely available.
Cooperative Efforts Improve Compliance with Acute Stroke Guidelines

Objective Guidelines for emergency treatment of stroke are not always known or followed. Florida Medical Quality Assurance, Inc. collaborated with hospitals to determine how closely the current American Heart Association (AHA) and the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) guidelines were being followed and to improve compliance with these guidelines. Methods Medical records of patients admitted for acute stroke to 32 hospitals were retrospectively reviewed for compliance with six quality indicators (QIs) on the basis of AHA and AHCA guidelines. Hospitals were provided feedback on their levels of guideline compliance, and they subsequently implemented measures to improve compliance. After 6 months, the records of patients admitted after the provision of feedback were reviewed for compliance with the same six QIs. Results Compliance improved with regard to all QIs and was statistically significant for three of them. Conclusion Feedback on performance, coupled with proactive collaboration with emergency department staff, resulted in improved compliance with the stroke guidelines.
Spouse Caregivers' Perceptions of Influence of Dementia on Marriage

Objectives: To investigate what kind of changes spouse caregivers of demented patients experience after the onset of dementia (a) in the general atmosphere, happiness, and relations of marriage and (b) in the sexual side of marriage. Design: Semistructured telephone interviews of spouse caregivers of demented patients. Setting: Community-living demented patients and their spouse caregivers in eastern Finland. Participants: The spouse caregivers of 42 demented patients recruited from a previous intervention study. Measures: The questionnaire covered different areas of marriage from the time before and after the onset of dementia. Results: A statistically significant decline had occured in extent of happiness (p = .012), in equal relations (p = .001), and in patients' expressions of sexual needs (p < .001) when compared the time before and after dementia. Twenty-five (60%) of the caregivers reported that the demented patient had shown at least one negative sexual behavioral change during the course of dementia. Seven male patients (24%) had shown the behavioral symptom of constantly expressing need for making love. One in 10 caregivers had experienced positive sexual behavioral changes. In one third of the patients, the expressions of tenderness towards the caregiver had increased. Dementia did not affect significantly the general atmosphere of the marriage. Out of those still in home care, at 3 years from the onset of dementia, 19 couples (46%) continued to practice intercourse, at 5 years the number was 15 couples (41%), and at 7 years it had declined to 7 couples (28%). Conclusions: Dementing illness has a major negative impact on many dimensions of marriage. However, there are also positive changes and preserved aspects of marriage. Dementia seems to have a surprisingly little impact on whether the couple continues to have intercourse when compared with the general aging population.
Integrating R and Hadoop for Big Data Analysis

Analyzing and working with big data could be very difficult using classical means like relational database management systems or desktop software packages for statistics and visualization. Instead, big data requires large clusters with hundreds or even thousands of computing nodes. Official statistics is increasingly considering big data for deriving new statistics because big data sources could produce more relevant and timely statistics than traditional sources. One of the software tools successfully and wide spread used for storage and processing of big data sets on clusters of commodity hardware is Hadoop. Hadoop framework contains libraries, a distributed file-system (HDFS), a resource-management platform and implements a version of the MapReduce programming model for large scale data processing. In this paper we investigate the possibilities of integrating Hadoop with R which is a popular software used for statistical computing and data visualization. We present three ways of integrating them: R with Streaming, Rhipe and RHadoop and we emphasize the advantages and disadvantages of each solution.
The Psb 27 Assembly Factor Binds to the CP 43 Complex of Photosystem II in the Cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp . PCC 68031 [ C ] [ W ] [ OA ]

Laboratory of Photosynthesis, Institute of Microbiology, Academy of Sciences, 37981 Trebon, Czech Republic (J. Komenda, J. Knoppová, J. Kopečná, R.S.); Department of Molecular Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of South Bohemia, 370 05 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic (J. Kopečná, R.S.); Laboratory of Molecular Structure Characterization, Institute of Microbiology, Academy of Sciences, 14220 Praha 2–Krc, Czech Republic (P.H.); Wolfson Biochemistry Building, Division of Molecular Biosciences, Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom (J.Y., M.B., P.J.N.); and Molekulare Pflanzenwissenschaften, Biozentrum Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munich, 82152 Planegg-Martinsried, Germany (J.N.)
Identifying epileptic source location and extent: An iterative sparse electromagnetic source imaging algorithm

In this paper we have introduced a novel electromagnetic source imaging (ESI) technique and demonstrated its validity and excellent performance in imaging the location and extent of underlying epileptic sources in patients suffering from focal epilepsy. The proposed algorithm employs ideas from sparse signal processing literature and convex optimization theories to improve source imaging results obtained from scalp-recorded electroencephalogram (EEG). EEG source imaging results generally use subjective methods to determine the extent of the underlying brain activity. The proposed technique provides significant improvement in dealing with such shortcomings and eliminates the need for thresholding. The results of our computer simulations and clinical validation study demonstrate the excellent performance of the proposed algorithm and suggest it may become a useful tool for objectively determining the location and extent of focal epileptic activity in a noninvasive fashion.
Natural Brucella infection in Argentine wild foxes.

In the course of an investigation in 1962-64 into the natural occurrence of brucellosis among grey foxes in Argentina, agglutination tests were performed on 728 sera of the foxes Dusicyon gymnocercus antiquus and D. griseus griseus, captured in the provinces of Buenos Aires and Rio Negro. Agglutination titres of from 1:25 to 1:800 were found in 173 (23.8%) of the foxes tested, 11.3% having titres of 1:100 or more. In bacteriological testing, eight cultures of Brucella abortus, biotype 1, were obtained.Discussing their findings, the authors point out that it cannot be stated definitely whether Brucella is naturally shed by foxes or to what extent infected foxes contribute to the dissemination of brucellosis.
462-nW 2-axis gesture sensor interface based on capacitively controlled ring oscillators

This paper presents a 2-axis gesture sensor interface that consumes 462 nW powered by a 0.8 V supply. The system consists of two proximity sensor (PS) interfaces that provide digital data outputs. A single PS interface consists of a capacitively controlled ring oscillator (CCRO) whose frequency is sensitive to the capacitance between two copper plates in a coplanar deployment and additional capacitive load introduced by the presence of a hand. The CCRO in each interface is followed by a modified cascaded integrator comb (CIC) filter that performs the frequency-to-digital conversion, filtering and downsampling. When a total of three sensor plates are arranged in parallel, the middle one acting as a shared ground plate, the location of a user's hand can be obtained in two dimensions. Measurement results show that hand sweep gestures at 6-cm distance from the sensing plates can be detected by a lightweight algorithm.
Regularization of nonlinear Ill-posed equations with accretive operators

We study the regularization methods for solving equations with arbitrary accretive operators. We establish the strong convergence of these methods and their stability with respect to perturbations of operators and constraint sets in Banach spaces. Our research is motivated by the fact that the fixed point problems with nonexpansive mappings are namely reduced to such equations. Other important examples of applications are evolution equations and co-variational inequalities in Banach spaces.
Construction of leading economic index for recession prediction using vine copulas

Abstract This paper constructs a composite leading index for business cycle prediction based on vine copulas that capture the complex pattern of dependence among individual predictors. This approach is optimal in the sense that the resulting index possesses the highest discriminatory power as measured by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The model specification is semi-parametric in nature, suggesting a two-step estimation procedure, with the second-step finite dimensional parameter being estimated by QMLE given the first-step non-parametric estimate. To illustrate its usefulness, we apply this methodology to optimally aggregate the 10 leading indicators selected by The Conference Board (TCB) to predict economic recessions in the United States. In terms of the discriminatory power, our method is significantly better than the Index used by TCB.
Effects of frustration and magnitude of reward on selective attention, size estimation, and verbal evaluation.

Summary A high expectancy of success in playing a “fishing game” was established for all subjects (fourth-grade children) Subjects then played the fishing game for money A nonsense syllable was associated with the money. Half of the subjects were frustrated in their attempts to obtain the money, while the remaining subjects were rewarded in their attempts The dependent measures indicated that, relative to rewarded and control subjects, frustrated subjects (a) looked at pictures of money more often, (b) overestimated the size of money, and (c) attributed more positive statements to the syllable associated with reward Subjects frustrated on a larger reward showed these effects to a greater extent than subjects frustrated on a smaller reward These data support the hypothesis that the incentive value of a reward, and of salient neutral stimuli associated with the reward, is increased by frustration, and that this effect is strengthened by the use of larger rewards.
Brief Report: Increasing Acceptance of Homosexuality in the United States Across Racial and Ethnic Subgroups

Abstract:After recent civil rights expansions for sexual minorities in the United States, we updated previous findings on population-level attitudes toward homosexuality measured in the General Social Survey. In 2014, 40.1% of respondents reported that homosexuality was “always wrong” compared with 54.8% in 2008 (P < 0.001). Although black and Hispanic respondents consistently reported more negative attitudes regarding homosexuality than white respondents throughout 2008 to 2014, the percentage declined among all racial/ethnic groups. Among MSM, more positive attitudes were associated with HIV testing. Research shows a potential association between homophobia and HIV risk; thus, these population-level changes may promote better health among MSM.
Study on Suitable Semen Additives Incorporation into the Extender Stored at Refrigerated Temperature

The objective of this study was to compare the effect of Butylated Hydroxy Toluene (BHT), Pentoxifylline (PTX) and -tocopherol (Vit E) on semen quality parameters of Karan Fries bulls. The fortification of extender by various semen additives improves motility as well as fertility of spermatozoa. Split samples of 24 ejaculates of four Karan Fries bulls were extended in extender with or without various additives such as BHT, PTX and Vit E, and performance was evaluated at an interval of 0, 24, 48 and 72 h at refrigerated temperature (4-). Results of the present study revealed that addition of BHT, PTX and Vit E in extender improved sperm cell function, such as motility, viability, HOST, and acrosome integrity, as compared to the control during liquid storage up to 48 h of preservation at refrigerated temperature. There was no significant (p); however, the head and mid-piece abnormalities were almost unaffected. Tail and total abnormality were least in extender fortified with BHT, PTX and Vit E at different hours of incubation as compared to the control. The addition of 1.5 mM BHT, 3.6 mM PTX and 1 mg/ml Vit E in the semen extender has more beneficial effect in terms of semen quality and preservability of spermatozoa.
In vitro effects of crude khat extracts on the growth, colonization, and glucosyltransferases of Streptococcus mutans

Millions of Yemenites, East Africans, and immigrants to Western countries chew khat daily for its amphetamine-like effects. There is little information in the literature concerning the possible effects of the habit on oral microbiota. Our objective was to study in vitro crude khat extract effects on Streptococcus mutans growth and sucrose-dependent colonization, and on its glucosyltransferase (GTF) activity and production. Three khat cultivars were used. Lyophilized crude aqueous khat extracts were applied to the different assays at concentrations of 0–1% (w/v). Sucrose-dependent colonization was assessed as the ability of Streptococcus mutans UA159 to form adherent biofilms in glass culture tubes. Colony forming units (CFUs) in the planktonic phase served as a measure of bacterial growth, while CFUs in the biofilm phase were used to quantify viability in the biofilms. GTFs activity was tested by incubating a crude GTFs preparation with sucrose and determining the amount of water-soluble and water-insoluble glucans formed. GTFs production was assayed by comparing intensities of GTF bands in Western blots of extracts from control and khat-containing cultures. The khat extracts effectively inhibited biofilm formation. The minimum biofilm inhibitory concentration (MBIC) varied among the cultivars (0.25–1%). The extracts also inhibited synthesis of both glucan types, particularly insoluble glucans (average 85% inhibition at 1%), with significant differences among the cultivars. However, khat increased bacterial growth and at sub-MBIC also viability within biofilms; there were no inter-cultivar differences. It is shown that khat leaves contain water-soluble constituents that inhibit some cariogenic properties of S. mutans in vitro.
Short‐faced mice and developmental interactions between the brain and the face

The length of the face represents an important axis of variation in mammals and especially in primates. Mice with mutations that produce variation along this axis present an opportunity to study the developmental factors that may underlie evolutionary change in facial length. The Crf4 mutant, obtained from the C57BL/6J (wt/wt) background by chemical mutagenesis by the Baylor Mouse Mutagenesis Resource, is reported to have a short‐faced phenotype. As an initial step towards developing this model, we performed 3D geometric morphometric comparisons of Crf4 mice to C57BL/6J wild‐type mice focusing on three stages of face development and morphology – embryonic (GD 9.5–12), neonatal, and adult. Morphometric analysis of adult Crf4 mutants revealed that in addition to a shortened face, these mice exhibit a significant reduction in brain size and basicranial length. These same features also differ at the neonatal stage. During embryonic face formation, only dimensions related to brain growth were smaller, whereas the Crf4 face actually appeared advanced relative to the wild‐type at the same somite stage. These results show that aspects of the Crf4 phenotype are evident as early as embryonic face formation. Based on our anatomical findings we hypothesize that the reduction in facial growth in Crf4 mice is a secondary consequence of reduction in the growth of the brain. If correct, the Crf4 mutant will be a useful model for studying the role of epigenetic interactions between the brain and face in the evolutionary developmental biology of the mammalian craniofacial complex as well as human craniofacial dysmorphology.