Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Importance of pre-recruitment life-history stages to population dynamics of the woolly sculpin Clinocottus analis

The relative influence of pre- versus post-recruitment life-history events on population size has been the subject of much recent debate. In the marine realm, much work has focused on intertidal invertebrates and on tropical reef fishes, with mixed results. We addressed this problem for a temperate intertidal fish, Clinocottus analis. Our main goal was to determine which life-history stage was most responsible for temporal changes in population size from 1996 to 2000 at 2 sites in San Diego, California, both seasonally and during the 1997 to 1998 El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event. We approached the problem using cohort analysis and matrix population modeling. Recruit- ment pulses were evident in population size structure for up to a year, unobscured by post-recruit- ment mortality, which was not density-dependent. Recruitment was not correlated to spawning adult biomass of 3 mo earlier, suggesting that egg, larval, or early post-settlement processes during those 3 mo determined the magnitude of recruitment, and ultimately, population size. Stage-structured population projection matrices were constructed to compare population growth rates and sensitivities among seasons and between climate periods (El Nino and non-El Nino). Elasticity (prospective) and decomposition (retrospective) analyses of these matrices indicated that the vital rates to which popu- lation growth rate (λ) was theoretically most sensitive were not necessarily those responsible for observed temporal differences in λ. Although λ was most sensitive to juvenile growth and adult sur- vivorship, fertility (which in this model included fecundity and egg, larval, and early post-settlement survivorship), in addition to juvenile growth, drove observed seasonal differences in λ. C. analis population size decreased during the 1997 to 1998 El Nino event due to a decrease in recruitment, a decrease in batch fecundity (hydrated eggs per female) and, at 1 site, changes in juvenile survivor- ship. Results of the study emphasize the power of early life-history events to structure C. analis populations on both seasonal and longer timescales.
Towards multi-agent electronic marketplaces: what is there and what is missing?

This paper gives an overview of electronic marketplaces which employ agent technology or similar techniques. Special attention is given to negotiation issues. A classification scheme for competitive negotiation depending on the type of the marketplace (business-to-business, business-to-consumer and consumer-to-consumer) and on the range of players (1:1, 1:n and n:m) is introduced. Furthermore, we distinguish between one-issue and multi-issue negotiation, and we consider crisp and fuzzy constraints on either negotiating side. Several existing electronic marketplaces and prototypes of marketplaces are discussed with respect to the classification schema. Our analysis shows that agent-based e-marketplaces are a promising area of e-commerce but they are still far away from real marketplaces. In conclusion we formulate some challenges for further research in the field of multi-agent electronic marketplaces with negotiation between agents.
A comparison of two procedures for teaching discrimination skills to Down's syndrome and non-handicapped children.

Summary. Two different strategies for teaching discrimination to Down's Syndrome (DS) and non-handicapped children were compared for relative efficiency: trial-and-error and errorless learning. Two types of discrimination tasks were used, shape and nonsense figure tasks. A pre-test was used to match children for pre-existing ability. Errorless learning proved to be the superior training strategy in each group, both during training and in post-tests. DS children responded poorly to trial-and-error training in both absolute and relative terms. Although order of presentation of training conditions had little effect on performance in the non-handicapped group, an interesting differential effect emerged in the DS group: initial trial-and-error training adversely affected subsequent performance in the errorless task while initial errorless experience enhanced subsequent trial-and-error performance. It would appear from these results that errorless learning may be useful as a “primer”, increasing motivation to learn in more conventional learning situations.
Estimating the severity of parkinson's disease from speech using linear regression and database partitioning

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders. PD is referred as idiopathic, that is, as having no known cause; its main symptoms are tremor, rigidity and general loss of muscle control. Research shows that speech may be a useful indicator for discriminating patients with PD from healthy controls. The paper describes our contribution to the INTERSPEECH 2015 Special Session “Computational Paralinguistics Challenge (ComParE): Parkinson’s Condition Sub-Challenge”. The main goal of the challenge is to perform automatic classification (regression) on speech produced by patients with Parkinson’s disease. The paper presents our method of linear regression models on a set of extracted acoustic features from the middle of vowels in words, sentences and continuous speech, and the partitioning of the speech samples according to their total length into parts with long, medium and short duration.
Advances in the study of marine viruses

Free viruses are abundant in the world's oceans. With this realization has come renewed interest in marine viruses and the role viruses play in structuring marine planktonic communities, primarily members of the microbial assemblage. The principal means of studying marine viruses has been by electron microscopy. This review discusses the use of microscopy to study free viruses and compares the ultrastructure of free viruses with bacteriophages and viruses which have been cultured from marine hosts.
Study on Application of Grid Computing Technology in Financial Industry

The increasing businesses and customers in financial industry require the stronger capability of computing and data processing. But it will result in the increase of cost on IT and aggravate enterprises' burden. The traditional enterprise information system has not met the increasing demands of the financial enterprises. It is urgent to make full use of enterprise internal resources. Grid technology can solve the problem. This paper discusses the application of grid computing in financial industry. First it analyzes the feasibility of grid technology application in financial industry. Then it puts forward the main applying architecture and implementation steps. Last the paper enumerates some points for attention during the application process. The application not only can improve the operation but also can greatly reduce the cost on IT.
Selective referral to high-volume hospitals: estimating potentially avoidable deaths.

CONTEXT Evidence exists that high-volume hospitals (HVHs) have lower mortality rates than low-volume hospitals (LVHs) for certain conditions. However, few employers, health plans, or government programs have attempted to increase the number of patients referred to HVHs. OBJECTIVES To determine the difference in hospital mortality between HVHs and LVHs for conditions for which good quality data exist and to estimate how many deaths potentially would be avoided in California by referral to HVHs. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS Literature in MEDLINE, Current Contents, and First-Search Social Abstracts databases from January 1, 1983, to December 31, 1998, was searched using the key words hospital, outcome, mortality, volume, risk, and quality. The highest-quality study assessing the mortality-volume relationship for each given condition was identified and used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) for in-hospital mortality for LVHs vs HVHs. These ORs were then applied to the 1997 California database of hospital discharges maintained by the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development to estimate potentially avoidable deaths. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Deaths that potentially could be avoided if patients with conditions for which a mortality-volume relationship had been treated at an HVH vs LVH. RESULTS The articles identified in the literature search were grouped by condition, and predetermined criteria were applied to choose the best article for each condition. Mortality was significantly lower at HVHs for elective abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, carotid endarterectomy, lower extremity arterial bypass surgery, coronary artery bypass surgery, coronary angioplasty, heart transplantation, pediatric cardiac surgery, pancreatic cancer surgery, esophageal cancer surgery, cerebral aneurysm surgery, and treatment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). A total of 58,306 of 121,609 patients with these conditions were admitted to LVHs in California in 1997. After applying the calculated ORs to these patient populations, we estimated that 602 deaths (95% confidence interval, 304-830) at LVHs could be attributed to their low volume. Additional analyses were performed to take into account emergent admissions and distance traveled, but the impact of loss of continuity of care for some patients and reduction in the availability of specialists for patients remaining at LVHs could not be assessed. CONCLUSIONS Initiatives to facilitate referral of patients to HVHs have the potential to reduce overall hospital mortality in California for the conditions identified. Additional study is needed to determine the extent to which selective referral is feasible and to examine the potential consequences of such initiatives.
A General Harmonic Rule Controller for Run-to-Run Process Control

The existence of initial bias in parameter estimation is an important issue in controlling short-run processes in semiconductor manufacturing. Harmonic rule has been widely used in machine setup adjustment problems. This paper generalizes the harmonic rule to a new controller called general harmonic rule (GHR) controller in run-to-run process control. The stability and optimality of the GHR controller is discussed for a wide range of stochastic disturbances. A numerical study is performed to compare the sensitivity of the GHR controller, the exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) controller and the variable EWMA controller. It is shown that the GHR controller is more robust than the EWMA controller when the process parameters are estimated with uncertainty.
Using seminar blogs to enhance student participation and learning in public health school classes.

OBJECTIVES We evaluated whether "seminar blogs" enhanced learning in a large graduate-level introductory public health school class. METHODS Sixty students were divided into 6 online blog groups. Students posted their assignments (case analyses, news commentaries), prompting comments from other students. Anonymous poll surveys of students were conducted at midpoint and at the end of the course. RESULTS Sixty percent reported that blog participation enriched their learning quite a bit, 34% a small amount, and 6% not at all; 54% said that the blogs provided opportunities to learn from classmates. When comparing writing on the blog to speaking in class, 60% found it easier, 30% about the same, and 10% harder. About 65% said that skills attained by participating in blogs were useful for current or future work. Major criticisms involved time issues. CONCLUSIONS Small seminar blogs offer opportunities for increased student participation, interaction, and learning. To be most effective and appealing, assignments for postings need to allow sufficient time for commentary. This educational technology has potential to expand the classroom experience and is worthy of further development and testing.
Wnt signaling has different temporal roles during retinal development

Differentiation of neural retinal precursor (NRP) cells in vertebrates follows an established order of cell‐fate determination associated with exit from the cell cycle. Wnt signaling regulates cell cycle in colon carcinoma cells and has been implicated in different aspects of retinal development in various species. To better understand the biological roles of Wnt in the developing retina, we have used a transgenic and pharmacological approach to manipulate the Wnt signaling pathway during retinal development in medaka embryos. With the use of both approaches, we observed that during the early phase of retinal development Wnt signaling regulated cell cycle progression, proliferation, apoptosis, and differentiation of NRP cells. However, during later phases of retinal development, proliferation and apoptosis were not affected by manipulation of Wnt signaling. Instead, Wnt regulated Vsx1 expression, but not the expression of other retinal cell markers tested. Thus, the response of NRP cells to Wnt signaling is stage‐dependent. Developmental Dynamics 239:297–310, 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Gastroesophageal variceal hemorrhage.

Gastroesophageal variceal hemorrhage, a major complication of portal hypertension resulting from cirrhosis, accounts for 10 to 30 percent of all cases of bleeding from the upper gastrointestinal tract.1 Variceal hemorrhage occurs in 25 to 35 percent of patients with cirrhosis and accounts for 80 to 90 percent of bleeding episodes in these patients.2–4 Variceal hemorrhage is associated with more substantial morbidity and mortality than other causes of gastrointestinal bleeding, as well as with higher hospital costs.5–7 Up to 30 percent of initial bleeding episodes are fatal, and as many as 70 percent of survivors have recurrent bleeding after .
Economic evaluation in using storage to reduce imbalance costs of renewable sources power plants

The spread of Renewable non-dispatchable sources represents a new challenges for the electrical power system. The unpredictability of generation profiles caused the necessity to compensate the fluctuations of power, also using storage system. Storage system can be utilized to make Renewable Energy Sources more dispatchable, but their utilize solely for this purpose can be non-economical convenient. In this paper the storage system is utilized first of all to increase the self-consumption of energy for a prosumer, then the same storage system is utilized to reduce imbalance charges. The analysis of imbalances costs varying the capacity of storage system and the accuracy of the production forecasts is carried out. It is underlined as the benefits of storage system for high accuracy forecasts are clearer then for low accuracy forecasts.
3D Face Recognition Using Spherical Vector Norms Map

In this paper, we introduce a novel, automatic method for 3D face recognition. A new feature called a spherical vector norms map of a 3D face is created using the normal vector of each point. This feature contains more detailed information than the original depth image in regions such as the eyes and nose. For certain flat areas of 3D face, such as the forehead and cheeks, this map could increase the distinguishability of different points. In addition, this feature is robust to facial expression due to an adjustment that is made in the mouth region. Then, the facial representations, which are based on Histograms of Oriented Gradients, are extracted from the spherical vector norms map and the original depth image. A new partitioning strategy is proposed to produce the histogram of eight patches of a given image, in which all of the pixels are binned based on the magnitude and direction of their gradients. In this study, SVNs map and depth image are represented compactly with two histograms of oriented gradients; this approach is completed by Linear Discriminant Analysis and a Nearest Neighbor classifier.
Primary optic pathways in the echidna, Tachyglossus aculeatus: An experimental degeneration study

The retinofugal axons of Tachyglossus aculeatus were found to project to two diencephalic nuclei, disparate in size and location and designated provisionally as LGNa and b, and to the pretectum and superior colliculus. The primary optic pathways of the echidna are crossed except for a few fibers which pass to the ipsilateral large diencephalic nucleus (LGNa). Further work is required before the homologies of the two diencephalic nuclei can be determined. In addition, entirely crossed projections were also found to a large number of optic nuclei including a medial terminal nucleus, four cell groups interstitial to the optic tract, and a nucleus located within the brachium of the superior colliculus which may represent a dorsal terminal nucleus. The latter nucleus may, however, actually be the nucleus of the optic tract which is displaced from its usual close association with the pretectal area. Only an inferior fasciculus of the accessory optic tract was found.
Book Reviews and Abstracts

FUZZY RELATIONAL SYSTEMS: FOUNDATIONS AND PRINCIPLES, by Radim Bělohlávek. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, 2002, XII1369 pages, ISBN 0-306-46777-1. This book presents a general theory of fuzzy relational systems and concentrates on selected general issues of fuzzy relational modeling in the framework of the developed theory. It discusses phenomena hidden in the ordinary bivalent case, as well as new topics in fuzzy relational systems, such as object-attribute fuzzy relations and fuzzy concept lattices, similarity and fuzzy closure operators. Both mathematicians and engineers will find the book an invaluable teaching and reference resource in modeling and fuzzy logic. INTELLIGENT CONTROL SYSTEMS: AN INTRODUCTION WITH EXAMPLES, by Katalin M. Hangos, Rozália Lakner and Miklós Gerzson. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston. 2000, XVI1299 pages, ISBN 1-4020-0134-7. Intelligent control is a rapidly developing, complex and challenging field with great practical importance and potential. Because of the rapidly developing and interdisciplinary nature of the subject, there are only a few edited volumes consisting of research papers on intelligent control systems but little is known and published about the fundamentals and the general know-how in designing, implementing and operating intelligent control systems. BOOK REVIEWS AND ABSTRACTS 101
Periodic event-triggered consensus with single-integrator dynamics

Periodic event-triggered control for the consensus problem of multi-agent systems is investigated in this paper. Triggering conditions are discussed in two cases: 1) with communication between neighbors at each verification time, 2) with communication at triggering times. Based on Lyapunov theory and algebraic graph theory, consensus conditions on the verification period and triggering condition parameters are derived in both cases. It is proved that the maximum verification period in the first case is two times larger than the results in the literature. Moreover, the amount of communication between neighbors can be reduced in the second case. Finally, simulations are shown to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed theoretical results.
Levels and Distribution of the Calcium‐Modulated Proteins S100 and Calmodulin in Rat C6 Glioma Cells

To understand better the mechanisms involved in the transduction of a calcium signal into an intracellular response via multiple calcium‐modulated proteins, we have examined the calcium‐modulated proteins, S100 and calmodulin, and their intracellular targets in rat C6 glioma cells. Subconfluent, confluent, and postconfluent C6 cells contain predominantly, if not exclusively, the S100β polypeptide. The level of S100β in C6 cells increases approximately 20‐fold from subconfluency to postconfluency whereas the level of calmodulin increases only about twofold. The subcellular distribution of S100β and calmodulin in mitotic cells is similar. However, the subcellular distribution of these proteins in interphase cells is different and appears to change with cell density. Gel overlay analysis demonstrated that the S100– and calmodulin‐binding protein profiles are significantly different and that some of the binding proteins appear to change in intensity with cell density. These data demonstrate that S100β is the predominant S100 polypeptide in C6 cells and suggest that changes in S100β and S100β‐binding proteins may be involved in regulating S100‐mediated intracellular processes in C6 cells. Our studies also suggest that the levels of S100 and calmodulin may be differentially regulated in C6 cells.
The SCOOP Concurrency Model in Java-like Languages

SCOOP is a minimal extension to the sequential object-oriented programming model for concurrency. The extension consists of one keyword (separate) that avoids explicit thread declarations, synchronized blocks, explicit waits, and eliminates data races and atomicity violations by construction, through a set of compiler rules. SCOOP was originally described for the Eiffel programming language. This paper makes two contributions. Firstly, it presents a design pattern for SCOOP, which makes it feasible to transfer SCOOP’s concepts to different object-oriented programming languages. Secondly, it demonstrates the generality of the SCOOP model by presenting an implementation of the SCOOP design pattern for Java. Additionally, we describe tools that support the SCOOP design pattern, and give a concrete example of its use in Java.
A multi-microphone noise reduction approach based on beamforming and signal subspace filter

A new approach combing beamforming and subspace filter is proposed for noise reduction under multi-microphone condition. The directional characteristic of beamforming provides nulls against the noise signal and directional lobe to the target signal. The output of beamforming acts as input signal of subspace filter. Compared with other algorithms based on signal subspace approach (SSA), the presented method not only further reduces background noise but also decreases computation cost. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms conventional SSA algorithms in noise reduction, while its computation complexity is also lower.
Wind energy and corruption; evidence from Italian data

Taking a political economy approach, we analyze the link between public support schemes for renewable energy and the potential scope for rent seeking and corruption. The insights of a model of political influence by interest groups are tested empirically using a panel data of Italian provinces for the period 1990-2007. We find the following: i) criminal association activity increased more in windy provinces and especially after the introduction of a more favorable policy regime and, ii) the expansion of the wind energy sector has been driven by both the wind level and the quality of political institutions, through their effect on criminal association.
A new model free approach to simultaneously stabilizing

In this paper an approach is presented to calculating the family of stabilizing PID controller for simultaneously stabilizing. The important feature of this approach is that there is no need to mathematical model of plants and the only required data is the frequency responses of plants. Also it is illustrated that the performance specifications such as H∞-norm of complementary sensitivity function can be improved by the same approach. The usefulness of the proposed approach is illustrated by an academic example.