Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Shared gray matter alterations in individuals with diverse behavioral addictions: A voxel-wise meta-analysis

Abstract Background and aims Numerous studies on behavioral addictions (BAs) have reported gray matter (GM) alterations in multiple brain regions by using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). However, findings are poorly replicated and it remains elusive whether distinct addictive behaviors are underpinned by shared abnormalities. In this meta-analysis, we integrated VBM studies on different BAs to investigate common GM abnormalities in individuals with BAs. Methods We performed a systematic search up to January 2019 in several databases for VBM studies investigating GM differences between individuals with BAs and healthy controls. The reference lists of included studies and high-quality reviews were investigated manually. Anisotropic effect-size signed differential mapping was applied in this meta-analysis. Results Twenty studies including 505 individuals with BAs and 564 healthy controls met the inclusion criteria. Compared with healthy controls, individuals with BAs showed GM atrophy in the left anterior cingulate (extending to the left medial superior frontal gyrus and bilateral orbitofrontal gyrus), right putamen and right supplementary motor area. Subgroup analysis found heterogeneity in gender and subtypes of BAs. Meta-regression revealed that GM decreases in the left anterior cingulate and right supplementary motor area were positively correlated with addictive severity. Higher impulsivity was associated with smaller volume of the left anterior cingulate. Discussion and conclusions Our findings on BAs were mainly derived from internet gaming disorder (IGD) and pathological gambling (PG) studies, preliminarily suggesting that GM atrophy in the prefrontal and striatal areas might be a common structural biomarker of BAs.
Capital market e ciency in the Ising model environment: Local and global e↵ects

Abstract. Financial Ising model is one of the simplest agent-based models (building on a parallel between capital markets and the Ising model of ferromagnetism) mimicking the most important stylized facts of financial returns such as no serial correlation, fat tails, volatility clustering and volatility persistence on the verge of non-stationarity. We present results of Monte Carlo simulation study investigating the relationship between parameters of the model (related to herding and minority game behaviors) and crucial characteristics of capital market e ciency (with respect to the e cient market hypothesis). We find a strongly non-linear relationship between these which opens possibilities for further research. Specifically, the existence of both herding and minority game behavior of market participants are necessary for attaining the e cient market in the sense of the e cient market hypothesis.
ATTRACTION OF APIS MELLIFERA L. (HYMENOPTERA: APIDAE) TO VOLATILE COMPOUNDS

Anethole and the commercial Trécé Japanese beetle lure (10:22:11, 2‐phenylethylproprionate: eugenol: geraniol) exposed in Trécé Japanese beetle traps attracted honey bees, Apis mellifera L. Other floral lures and fatty acids tested did not attract honey bees.
Specific distribution of mRNAs in maize growing pollen tubes observed by whole‐mount in situ hybridization with non‐radioactive probes

The distribution of a number of specific mRNAs has been observed in maize growing pollen tubes. Whole-mount in situ hybridization using digoxygenin-labelled RNA probes has been tested. The technique appears to be a simple, rapid and reliable method in this system, in immature anthers and also in other tissues. Results for three probes are presented. They correspond to a hydroxyproline-rich glycoprotein (HRGP), an abundant component of the maize cell wall, to an α-tubulin (encoded by the Tubα 1 gene) highly expressed in the radicular system of the plant and also in pollen, and to an isoform of the malic enzyme, involved in the basic metabolism of the plant. The mRNAs corresponding to these three proteins are differently distributed in the germinating pollen. While HRGP mRNA is only present in the tube, malic enzyme mRNA is only present in the body of the pollen cell, and α-tubulin mRNA is present in both parts of the cell but shows a higher accumulation in the tip of the pollen tube.
Modelagem matemática para o aproveitamento da biomassa residual de colheita da cana-de-açúcar com menor custo

With the gradual reduction in harvest burning, the straw derived from raw sugarcane harvest has become a focal point for researchers and producers alike. The advantages of retrieving, recovering and using this straw have motivated university researchers and sugar mill managers and directors to find the most productive, economic and efficient way to carry out such process. The retrievement of the straw is done in four phases: first it is joined and later bundled by a compacting machine, it is then loaded into trucks and finally transported to the processing center. The feasibility of using this residue in order to generate energy is linked to the cost and the energy balance, that is, the difference between energy generated by the biomass and the energy used in the process. In this work, it is proposed the use of mathematical techniques to assist in choosing the sugar cane varieties to be planted in order to optimize the residual biomass energy balance and minimize the cost in collecting the biomass and carrying from the field to the production center, in addition to satisfying the main needs of the mill.
Molecular Dynamics of Retinoic Acid-Induced Craniofacial Malformations: Implications for the Origin of Gnathostome Jaws

Background Intake of retinoic acid (RA) or of its precursor, vitamin A, during early pregnancy is associated with increased incidence of craniofacial lesions. The origin of these teratogenic effects remains enigmatic as in cranial neural crest cells (CNCCs), which largely contribute to craniofacial structures, the RA-transduction pathway is not active. Recent results suggest that RA could act on the endoderm of the first pharyngeal arch (1stPA), through a RARß-dependent mechanism. Methodology/Principal Findings Here we show that RA provokes dramatically different craniofacial malformations when administered at slightly different developmental times within a narrow temporal interval corresponding to the colonization of the 1st PA by CNCCs. We provide evidence showing that RA acts on the signalling epithelium of the 1st PA, gradually reducing the expression of endothelin-1 and Fgf8. These two molecular signals are instrumental in activating Dlx genes in incoming CNCCs, thereby triggering the morphogenetic programs, which specify different jaw elements. Conclusions/Significance The anatomical series induced by RA-treatments at different developmental times parallels, at least in some instances, the supposed origin of modern jaws (e.g., the fate of the incus). Our results might provide a conceptual framework for the rise of jaw morphotypes characteristic of gnathostomes.
Habitat Choice and Speciation

The role of habitat choice in reproductive isolation and ecological speciation has often been overlooked, despite acknowledgement of its ability to facilitate local adaptation. It can form part of the speciation process through various evolutionary mechanisms, yet where habitat choice has been included in models of ecological speciation little thought has been given to these underlying mechanisms. Here, we propose and describe three independent criteria underlying ten different evolutionary scenarios in which habitat choice may promote or maintain local adaptation. The scenarios are the result of all possible combinations of the independent criteria, providing a conceptual framework in which to discuss examples which illustrate each scenario. These examples show that the different roles of habitat choice in ecological speciation have rarely been effectively distinguished. Making such distinctions is an important challenge for the future, allowing better experimental design, stronger inferences and more meaningful comparisons among systems. We show some of the practical difficulties involved by reviewing the current evidence for the role of habitat choice in local adaptation and reproductive isolation in the intertidal gastropod Littorina saxatilis, a model system for the study of ecological speciation, assessing whether any of the proposed scenarios can be reliably distinguished, given current research.
Ultraviolet‐sensitive ooplasmic factors are responsible for the development of an endoderm‐specific alkaline phosphatase in the ascidian embryo

The ascidian egg contains muscle and endoderm determinants that play critical roles in the specification of muscle and endoderm cells, respectively. Endoderm cells of the ascidian embryo express alkaline phosphatase (AP) as a tissue‐specific enzyme. We obtained egg fragments from the unfertilized eggs of Ciona savignyi by means of centrifugal force. The largest fragment (red fragments) contained the egg nucleus while other small fragments (black, clear and brown fragments) were anucleate. When inseminated, only red fragments developed into partial embryos, which showed only epidermis cell differentiation and, very rarely, AP activity. When red fragments were fused with other fragments, only black fragments promoted AP expression, suggesting that endoderm determinants were concentrated in the black fragments. A lower dose (1500 J/m2) of ultraviolet (UV) light did not eliminate the AP‐promoting ability of black fragments, while this dose significantly repressed the ability to promote the expression of the muscle‐marker. A higher dose (4500 J/m2) of UV light markedly reduced the AP‐promoting activity of black fragments. These results suggest that factors for endodermal AP development are inactivated by UV irradiation, but are more resistant than muscle determinants.
Food Habits of Ocelots and Potential for Competition With Bobcats In Southern Texas

Abstract Recovery efforts for the endangered ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) would be aided by knowledge of its feeding ecology in the affected region. We analyzed scat of ocelots and bobcats (Lynx rufus) from southern Texas. As has been found for most other populations of ocelots, rodents were the primary prey, but the principal species of rodent, the Mexican spiny pocket mouse (Liomys irroratus), is smaller than the principal prey reported for other populations of ocelots. Lagomorphs were more common prey than has been reported in other studies of ocelots, and birds more common prey than in all but one previous study. The diet of bobcats appeared similar overall to the diet of ocelots, but lagomorphs occurred in a significantly higher proportion of scats from bobcats. The data suggest that bobcats also preyed more heavily on the largest rodents and less on the medium-sized rodents than ocelots did. There was no clear division by type of habitat; both felids preyed approximately equally on species that are found primarily in grassland and those that are found in thornscrub. Near the United States-Mexico border, where the ranges of these felids overlap, there is the potential for substantial competition for resources between the two species. An important component of efforts to restore the population of ocelots in this region, therefore, will be a thorough investigation of this possibility. Studies of the dietary differences when both or only one of the felid species is present in an area, use of foraging habitat by both species, and the relationship between densities of prey and felids would allow the likelihood of negative impacts of competition to be fully evaluated.
SOCIAL PATH FOLLOWING

Path planning consists of finding a route from one location point to another. It is also known as motion planning or navigation problem and it is common in several fields in Computer Science and commercial games since it has to be solved in real time, under constraints of memory and CPU resources. Abstracting the problem, path planning is divided in two main sub-problems: path finding, used to find a simplified route composed of connected segments and path following to make the locomotion along the route as realistic as possible. The path following should avoid contact between objects through the collision avoidance; together, they represent the main topic of our studies. We work on a virtual environment populated by agents and avatars that are engaged in social situations and show autonomous believable social behaviors. In this context, natural and fluid paths are the keys to providing a high level of presence and realism. Building on several theories about human territories, social forces and body language, we are extending the state of the art of path following; each agent is now able to avoid static and dynamic obstacles along its path, to predict future interaction patterns of others and accordingly to apply corrections to its movement. We model spontaneous form of non-verbal negotiation that humans engage in every day during their locomotion. Their behavior is also slightly affected by stochastic factors that appear under the form of little changes on velocity and/or orientation, called distortions. Our approach is able to solve path following and collision avoidance in many types of situations, finding a good balance between realism and performance. To test this, we implemented several scenarios of completely different simulations. Moreover, creating a specific profile for each agent, our system can also show how different stereotypes of people act in those situations and compare them with expected results. Social Path Following
The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Communications A TALE OF FOUR CITIES – A SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF NEWSPAPER COVERAGE OF AIR POLLUTION

Air pollution has become a growing concern to the public, news media and policy makers in recent years. This study tested the agenda setting effects of reporting air pollution on the issue salience in the public agenda by comparing how air pollution was reported from January 2014 to March 2017 in four cities – Tianjin, Hong Kong, Pittsburgh and London. One major English newspaper in the city area was selected to retrieve news reports on the city’s air pollution issue. An automated content analysis was conducted using LIWC2015 software. Results discovered the existence of agenda-setting effects in all the four cities. Media salience of air pollution was strongly correlated with the public salience of the issue. Moreover, real-time air quality affected the strength of the agenda setting effects in Tianjin, but not in Hong Kong, Pittsburgh and London. After controlling for the real-time air quality, the agenda-setting effect was not significant for Tianjin. Further, examining the second-level of agenda, this study found that realtime air quality affected the tone of media coverage of the Tianjin air pollution. The worse the air quality, the more negative the coverage would be. Comparing media coverage tone of air pollution of the four cities, the study found that reports on Pittsburgh’s air pollution had the most positive tone, whereas the London air pollution reporting had the most negative tone. In addition, it was found that for Tianjin and Hong Kong, air pollution coverage was closely related to economic coverage. Finally, the air pollution coverage in Tianjin focused less on the present but more on the past than the other cities. The implications and limitations of the results were discussed.
Medikamentenbeschichtete Devices in der Behandlung der peripheren arteriellen Verschlusskrankheit // Drug-coated devices in Treatment of Peripheral arterial disease

Drug-coated devices in Treatment of Peripheral arterial disease. The development of drug coated stents and balloons, which impede neo-intimal proliferation, contributed to the recent improvements in patency after endovascular revascularization. Drug-eluting stents represent the first implementation of this technology in the femoropopliteal segment. Drugcoated balloons enable antiproliferative effects without primary stent implantation. Nevertheless, the use of drug eluting devices has come in discussion over the last year. Ongoing studies will help to further clarify the therapeutic value of drug-coated devices for treatment of PAD. Z Gefäßmed 2020; 17 (1): 14–20.
Abundant non-hydrocarbons in crude oils from the western Qaidam Basin, northwest China

The non-hydrocarbon fraction of immature-low maturity crude oils from the western Qaidam Basin which were formed in the source beds deposited in highly saline and strongly reducing environments were analyzed by GC-MS to determine their compositions. Abundant fatty acids, alkanols, fatty acid glycerol monoesters, and stenols were identified. Geochemical analyses suggested that these compounds were largely originated from the oil source rocks. The linear compounds consist primarily of the short-chain homologues (C10–C20). The C27–C29 sterols detected were dominated by C27 stenols. The molecular characteristics suggest that algae and bacteria were the major source organism. The presence of abundant fatty acid glycerol monoesters suggests that the biological lipids, particularly bacterial phospholipids were important contributors to the formation of the crude oils studied. The existence of abundant unsaturated linear compounds, stenols and high CPI values of linear non-hydrocarbon compounds is consistent with the low maturity of these crude oils.
Shuhai: Benchmarking High Bandwidth Memory On FPGAS

FPGAs are starting to be enhanced with High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) as a way to reduce the memory bandwidth bottleneck encountered in some applications and to give the FPGA more capacity to deal with application state. However, the performance characteristics of HBM are still not well specified, especially in the context of FPGAs. In this paper, we bridge the gap between nominal specifications and actual performance by benchmarking HBM on a state-of-the-art FPGA, i.e., a Xilinx Alveo U280 featuring a two-stack HBM subsystem. To this end, we propose Shuhai, a benchmarking tool that allows us to demystify all the underlying details of HBM on an FPGA. FPGA-based benchmarking should also provide a more accurate picture of HBM than doing so on CPUs/GPUs, since CPUs/GPUs are noisier systems due to their complex control logic and cache hierarchy. Since the memory itself is complex, leveraging custom hardware logic to benchmark inside an FPGA provides more details as well as accurate and deterministic measurements. We observe that 1) HBM is able to provide up to 425 GB/s memory bandwidth, and 2) how HBM is used has a significant impact on performance, which in turn demonstrates the importance of unveiling the performance characteristics of HBM so as to select the best approach. Shuhai can be easily generalized to other FPGA boards or other generations of memory, e.g., HBM3, and DDR3. We will make Shuhai open-source, benefiting the community.
Atherosclerosis microbiome: upcoming target for vaccine and drug development

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in adults and is one critical area of the medical sciences. Atherosclerosis is the main underlying pathology and is characterized by chronic inflammation of the arterial walls. The current treatment modalities for CVD target hypertension, hyperlipidemia and hemostasis, and suppress inflammation without directly addressing the origin of inflammation. Thus, many individuals with multiple classic risk factors for CVD do not experience acute ischemic events. Moreover, myocardial infarction and stroke continue to occur in up to two-thirds of all patients. Because many cardiovascular events have not been explained by genetics or other risk factors, and multiple epidemiologic studies have consistently suggested an infectious component, the introduction of entirely novel approaches for diagnostics and treatment that target infections are acutely needed. These complementary novel approaches addressing additional manageable risk factors such as infections will be based on the concept of personalized medicine to control CVD and achieve longevity, while also increasing the quality of life. There are a variety of avenues that could enable such novel approaches. These focus on the discovery and characterization of the infective component of atherosclerosis, the atherosclerosis microbiome. Specifically, we provide an update of the latest developments in the oral microbiome and its relation to CVD.
Stability of fumonisins at different storage periods and temperatures in γ‐irradiated maize

The effect of γ‐irradiation on fumonisin B1 (FB1) and fumonisin B2 (FB2) occurring in maize materials has been investigated together with the stability of fumonisins in γ‐irradiated maize stored at different temperatures (‐18 to +40°C) for different periods (2, 4, 13 and 26 weeks). Fifteen kGy γ‐irradiation was required to sterilize efficiently maize flour. This process caused a decrease in fumonisin content of about 20%. The stability studies showed that fumonisins are stable in γ‐irradiated maize for at least 6 months at 25°C or at least 4 weeks at 40°C. These data indicate that γ‐irradiation is an appropriate technique for obtaining sterilized maize materials to be used for intercomparison studies on analytical procedures for the measurement of the fumonisin content.
High Temperature at Flowering Inhibits Swelling of Pollen Grains, a Driving Force for Thecae Dehiscence in Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Summary To clarify the mechanism of high temperature-induced floret sterility in rice (Oryza sativa L.), we studied the effects of high temperature at flowering on the ability of thecae to dehisce and on pollen-grain swelling which causes thecae dehiscence. Two japonica rice cultivars, grown in four L pots under submerged soil conditions were subjected to high (39°C) and moderate (34°C) temperatures from 10 : 00 to 16 : 00 for three consecutive days at the flowering stage. The percentage of the thecae dehisced in response to artificial opening of the florets by removing lemma and the mean diameter of the pollen grains measured during four minutes after the artificial opening were examined to determine the ability of the thecae to dehisce and that of the pollen grains to swell, respectively. The high temperature given on the day of flowering decreased both the percentage of the dehisced thecae and the diameter of the pollen grains but did not affect the relationship between them. The thecae of the plants which had been subjected to the high temperature for one or two days before flowering, however, showed a lower dehiscence percentage than those of the plant treated on the day of flowering against the same pollen-grain diameter. We concluded that high temperature given on the day of flowering decreased the ability of the pollen grains to swell resulting in poor thecae dehiscence, and that, besides this decrease, high temperature given just before the days of flowering lowered the function of thecae themselves to dehisce, causing poorer thecae dehiscence.