Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Linking plant and ecosystem functional biogeography

Significance This article defines ecosystem functional properties, which can be derived from long-term observations of gas and energy exchange between ecosystems and the atmosphere, and shows that variations of those cannot be easily explained by classical climatological or biogeographical approaches such as plant functional types. Instead, we argue that plant traits have the potential to explain this variation, and we call for a stronger integration of research communities dedicated to plant traits and to ecosystem–atmosphere exchange. Classical biogeographical observations suggest that ecosystems are strongly shaped by climatic constraints in terms of their structure and function. On the other hand, vegetation function feeds back on the climate system via biosphere–atmosphere exchange of matter and energy. Ecosystem-level observations of this exchange reveal very large functional biogeographical variation of climate-relevant ecosystem functional properties related to carbon and water cycles. This variation is explained insufficiently by climate control and a classical plant functional type classification approach. For example, correlations between seasonal carbon-use efficiency and climate or environmental variables remain below 0.6, leaving almost 70% of variance unexplained. We suggest that a substantial part of this unexplained variation of ecosystem functional properties is related to variations in plant and microbial traits. Therefore, to progress with global functional biogeography, we should seek to understand the link between organismic traits and flux-derived ecosystem properties at ecosystem observation sites and the spatial variation of vegetation traits given geoecological covariates. This understanding can be fostered by synergistic use of both data-driven and theory-driven ecological as well as biophysical approaches.
Disk-like tiles and self-affine curves with noncollinear digits

Let A ∈ M n (ℤ) be an expanding matrix, D C ℤ n a digit set and T = T(A, D) the associated self-affine set. It has been asked by Grochenig and Haas (1994) that given any expanding matrix A ∈ M 2 (Z), whether there exists a digit set such that T is a connected or disk-like (i.e., homeomorphic to the closed unit disk) tile. With regard to this question, collinear digit sets have been studied in the literature. In this paper, we consider noncollinear digit sets and show the existence of a noncollinear digit set corresponding to each expanding matrix such that T is a connected tile. Moreover, for such digit sets, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for T to be a disk-like tile.
A mathematical framework for describing and analysing gene regulatory networks.

This paper presents a mathematical framework for describing and analysing gene regulatory networks by autonomous differential equations. It represents an improvement on existing frameworks in that it may handle a wider range of gene regulatory mechanisms. Gene regulatory networks are frequently threshold-dominated, i.e. genes are activated only when the concentration of certain gene products lie between definite thresholds. Here, the concept of regulatory domain is introduced to describe these regions in the phase space. To each regulatory domain is associated an indicator function whose value is 1 inside and 0 outside the domain. The indicator functions thus reflect the logical structure of the network. The sharp borders between the regulatory domains may be smoothed by replacing the logical step functions by continuous sigmoids or so-called logoid functions. A logoid function coincides with the step function outside a narrow interval around the threshold, and rises continuously from 0 to 1 inside it. Using logoids, the task of finding steady states is considerably simplified. A list of regions in phase space comprising all steady states lying close to a threshold is obtained by examining a certain type of matrix called the Logoid-Jacobian. In addition, this matrix leads to the conditions necessary for stability of the steady states. External signals may be conveniently incorporated in the form of Boolean variables. Thus the framework is well suited for studying gene regulatory networks both in single cells and multicellular systems.
METFORMIN: NON-GLYCEMIC EFFECTS AND POTENTIAL NOVEL INDICATIONS.

Metformin is the most commonly prescribed drug for the treatment of type 2 diabetes because of its apparent robust effects in reducing cardiovascular risk. The United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study suggests that metformin reduces the risk of myocardial infarction, and more recent retrospective studies have shown an association between metformin and a reduction in stroke, atrial fibrillation and all-cause mortality. The mechanism(s) explaining these putative benefits are not clear but may involve decreased energy intake (with attendant weight loss), improvement in lipids, and lowering of blood pressure; a review of selected literature suggests that metformin lowers blood pressure when it is elevated, but not when it is normal. Metformin appears to be safe when given to patients with Stage 3 chronic kidney disease (CKD-3). In addition, there is evidence that individuals with CKD-3, who are at increased cardiovascular risk, stand to benefit from metformin therapy. Lactic acidosis is an extremely remote and probably avoidable risk; measurement of plasma metformin levels and more frequent monitoring of renal function may be useful in selected patients with CKD-3 who are treated with metformin. Finally, there is evidence that metformin is safe in patients with heart failure; metformin therapy is associated with a reduction in newly incident heart failure and in heart failure mortality.
Graphic user interface modelling and testing automation

A Graphical User Interface (GUI) is the most widely used method whereby information systems interact with users. According to ACM Computing Surveys, on average, more than 45% of software code in a software application is dedicated to the GUI. However, GUI testing is extremely expensive. In unit testing, 10,000 cases can often be automatically tested within a minute whereas, in GUI testing, 10,000 simple GUI test cases need more than 10 hours to complete. This thesis effectively addresses the challenges of existing GUI testing methods and provides a unified solution to GUI testing automation. The three main contributions of this thesis are the proposal of the Graphic User Interface Testing Automation Model (GUITAM), the development of GUI Defect Classification and the proposal of the Long Use Case Closure Envelope Model.
Understanding Services in the Era of the Internet of Things: a Smart Service Taxonomy

In recent years, the “Internet of Things” with so called “smart products” has obtained increasing popularity in both practice and research. By building on the capabilities of smart products, services transform to “smart services” emphasizing the value smart products can provide and how it is cocreated. Even though first attempts have been conducted to conceptualize and classify smart services, there seems to be no overall consensus on the specific characteristics of smart services, which different forms they can take on and how different smart services can be described. For example, existing research on smart services does not always consider the common service design elements “service content” and “service delivery”. To address this shortcoming, we develop a taxonomy of smart services by applying extant literature. We further demonstrate the usefulness of our taxonomy by classifying 50 empirical objects and presenting three cases. As a contribution, the paper enhances the understanding of the notion of smart services and strengthens the conceptual foundation for future smart service research.
Immunonutrition: increased mortality is associated with immunonutrition in sepsis.

EDITOR—The review by Calder highlights data from meta-analysis that propose a benefit from giving immunonutrition in critically ill patients,1 but the current literature does not support this. Recent publications suggest an increase in mortality in patients with sepsis who are given immunonutrition.2 3 Interim analysis of …
Reduced diversity of faecal microbiota in Crohn’s disease revealed by a metagenomic approach

Background and aim: A role for the intestinal microbial community (microbiota) in the onset and chronicity of Crohn’s disease (CD) is strongly suspected. However, investigation of such a complex ecosystem is difficult, even with culture independent molecular approaches. Methods: We used, for the first time, a comprehensive metagenomic approach to investigate the full range of intestinal microbial diversity. We used a fosmid vector to construct two libraries of genomic DNA isolated directly from faecal samples of six healthy donors and six patients with CD. Bacterial diversity was analysed by screening the two DNA libraries, each composed of 25 000 clones, for the 16S rRNA gene by DNA hybridisation. Results: Among 1190 selected clones, we identified 125 non-redundant ribotypes mainly represented by the phyla Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. Among the Firmicutes, 43 distinct ribotypes were identified in the healthy microbiota, compared with only 13 in CD (p<0.025). Fluorescent in situ hybridisation directly targeting 16S rRNA in faecal samples analysed individually (n = 12) confirmed the significant reduction in the proportion of bacteria belonging to this phylum in CD patients (p<0.02). Conclusion: The metagenomic approach allowed us to detect a reduced complexity of the bacterial phylum Firmicutes as a signature of the faecal microbiota in patients with CD. It also indicated the presence of new bacterial species.
Serum Vitamin D and Risk of Breast Cancer within Five Years

Background: Vitamin D is an environmental and dietary agent with known anticarcinogenic effects, but protection against breast cancer has not been established. Objective: We evaluated the association between baseline serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels, supplemental vitamin D use, and breast cancer incidence over the subsequent 5 y of follow-up. Methods: From 2003–2009, the Sister Study enrolled 50,884 U.S. women 35–74 y old who had a sister with breast cancer but had never had breast cancer themselves. Using liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry, we measured 25(OH)D in serum samples from 1,611 women who later developed breast cancer and from 1,843 randomly selected cohort participants. We estimated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the risk of developing breast cancer using Cox proportional hazards models. Results: We found that 25(OH)D levels >38.0 ng/mL were associated with a 21% lower breast cancer hazard (highest versus lowest quartile: adjusted HR=0.79; CI: 0.63, 0.98). Analysis of the first 5 y of follow-up for all 50,884 Sister Study participants showed that self-reported vitamin D supplementation ≥4 times/wk was associated with an 11% lower hazard [HR=0.89 (CI: 0.81, 0.99)]. These associations were particularly strong among postmenopausal women [HR=0.72 (CI: 0.57, 0.93) and HR=0.83 (CI: 0.74, 0.93), respectively]. Conclusions: In this cohort of women with elevated risk, high serum 25(OH)D levels and regular vitamin D supplement use were associated with lower rates of incident, postmenopausal breast cancer over 5 y of follow-up. These results may help to establish clinical benchmarks for 25(OH)D levels; in addition, they support the hypothesis that vitamin D supplementation is useful in breast cancer prevention. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP943
Digestive and functional properties of a partially hydrolyzed cassava solid waste with high insoluble fiber concentration

Starch factories generate large amounts of cassava solid waste. A small amount is utilized for animal feed but most of it is discharged with deleterious effects to the envirounment. A edible food with a high content of insoluble dietary fiber (60.9%), named "partially hidrolyzed cassava waste" (PHCW), was prepared from industrial cassava solid waste by an enzymatic process. PHCW or wheat bran (WB) were fed to model rats and both promoted digestive function effects, but PHCW produced the greatest effect. The insoluble fiber constituent from PHCW (and not the soluble fiber), promoted the greatest fecal bulking, fecal weight and defecation frequency in rats, as compared to WB. Such results indicate that the partially hydrolyzed cassava waste presents digestive function properties which allow it to be used as an adequate source of insoluble dietary fiber in the formulation of functional food for human nutrition.
Carotid Intima-Media Thickness Testing as an Asymptomatic Cardiovascular Disease Identifier and Method for Making Therapeutic Decisions

Abstract Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death and disability in the United States. Although current therapies can reduce the risk for CVD, they are only given to patients who are considered to be at risk, and are therefore only beneficial if a patient's risk is accurately predicted before he or she sustains a cardiovascular (CV) event. Unfortunately, even relatively accurate risk factor analyses, such as the Reynolds Risk Score algorithm, fail to identify some patients who will sustain a CV event within 10 years. In contrast, the presence of an atheroma is an absolute predictor for the potential of an atherothrombotic event to occur, and it is therefore reasonable to anchor clinical decisions based on this knowledge. Carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) testing via B-mode ultrasound is a safe, simple, and inexpensive method for evaluating CV risk by measuring the combined thickness of the intimal and medial layers of the arterial wall. Use of CIMT testing can also detect marked thickening of the arterial wall, possibly indicating plaques or atheromas that are associated with accelerated atherosclerotic disease and increased risk for coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, and stroke. These characteristics make CIMT a practical supplemental method that physicians can use when making decisions. Moreover, the ability of CIMT testing to identify and quantify atherosclerotic disease has led to the adoption of CIMT as a surrogate endpoint in clinical trials, allowing the efficacy of new drugs to be assessed much more rapidly than would be possible by focusing solely on CV event or mortality rates. To date, several trials have provided evidence to indicate that some CVD therapies slow, stop, or reverse the progression of CIMT. Although many of these studies show that changes in CIMT predict future CV events, the value of CIMT testing in CVD risk assessment is still vigorously debated. In this article, we clarify the utility of CIMT testing for risk classification and reexamine its usefulness as a method for assessing therapeutic efficacy.
QC-LDPC Codes with Girth Eight Based on Independent Row-Column Mapping Sequence

Quasi-cyclic low-density parity-check (QC-LDPC) codes are known to have algebraic structure, which suits hardware implementation. However, low girth makes their performances worse than random structured LDPC codes. Based on independent row-column mapping sequence, this work proposed a generalized method of constructing QC-LDPC codes with girth eight, which enlarges the class of girth eight QC-LDPC codes to a fairly general series. Simulation results show that the bit error rate of the constructed codes is close to that of progressive edge growth (PEG) based QC-LDPC codes under iterative decoding.
Reptiles Produce Pheomelanin: Evidence in the Eastern Hermann's Tortoise (Eurotestudo boettgeri)

Abstract Reptiles, supposedly, do not produce pheomelanin pigments. Because this claim is based on rather weak evidence, we measured the shell pheomelanin content in the Hermann's Tortoise (Eurotestudo boettgeri). In contrast to expectation, we detected a substantial amount of this pigment. Given the recent interest in the adaptive function of melanin-based color traits, our study opens new avenues of research in reptiles.
Characterization of aflJ, a Gene Required for Conversion of Pathway Intermediates to Aflatoxin

ABSTRACT The genes encoding the aflatoxin biosynthetic pathway enzymes have been localized as a cluster to a 75-kb DNA fragment. The enzymatic functions of the products of most of the genes in the cluster are known, but there are a few genes that have not yet been characterized. We report here the characterization of one of these genes, a gene designated aflJ. This gene resides in the cluster adjacent to the pathway regulatory gene, aflR, and the two genes are divergently transcribed. Disruption of aflJ inAspergillus flavus results in a failure to produce aflatoxins and a failure to convert exogenously added pathway intermediates norsolorinic acid, sterigmatocystin, andO-methylsterigmatocystin to aflatoxin. The disrupted strain does, however, accumulate pksA, nor-1,ver-1, and omtA transcripts under conditions conducive to aflatoxin biosynthesis. Therefore, disruption ofaflJ does not affect transcription of these genes, andaflJ does not appear to have a regulatory function similar to that of aflR. Sequence analysis of aflJ and its putative peptide, AflJ, did not reveal any enzymatic domains or significant similarities to proteins of known function. The putative peptide does contain three regions predicted to be membrane-spanning domains and a microbodies C-terminal targeting signal.
Discharge training and counselling increase self-care ability and reduce postdischarge problems in CABG patients.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to determine how discharge training and counselling provided to patients, who had undergone coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, had effects on patients' self-care ability and on the problems encountered after discharge. The objectives were to help patients develop self-care behaviour to deal more comfortably with the problems caused by the disease and, hopefully, to reduce the number of problems they may encounter. BACKGROUND CABG surgery patients needing to manage various aspects of their self-care at home often find these tasks very difficult to carry out effectively. Discharge training and counselling services help patients undergoing CABG to develop self-care behaviours. DESIGN The study was prospective and quasi-experimental. METHODS The intervention and control groups consisted of 57 patients who were given discharge training and counselling by a researcher and 52 patients who were given routines by a nurse, respectively. The intervention group began receiving discharge training and counselling on the day of hospitalization. These were provided according to their individual knowledge needs and patients were given a booklet developed for training purposes. Data were collected by researcher using the Personal Information Form, the Self-Care Agency Scale. RESULTS It was found that the intervention group had a higher mean self-care score than the control group and experienced fewer problems following discharge compared with patients in the control group. CONCLUSION The discharge training and counselling services given to patients in the intervention group had a positive impact on the self-care ability of these patients and on alleviating the problems they encountered. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE As discharge training and counselling services had a positive impact on the self-care and alleviation of the problems that patients encounter after being discharged, we recommend application of these services and the usage of the training booklet for CABG patients.
Effective compression of hyperspectral imagery using improved three dimensional discrete cosine transform

Though hyperspectral imaging (HSI, or hypercube) has been applied in a wide range of applications, it suffers from massive volume of data for efficient data storage and transmission. Herein improved 3D discrete cosine transform (DCT) is proposed with good results yielded. Experiments on several datasets have validated the efficacy of our approach.
Sexual dysfunction in men with diabetes

Article points 1. Sexual dysfunction in men with diabetes has been talked about for many years and a great deal of important research has been carried out. It has been linked to neuropathic and vascular changes that occur in diabetes, as well as medication side-effects and psychogenic factors. 2. The healthcare professional carrying out the consultation should conduct a detailed assessment of the individual’s problem, including the duration of symptoms, duration of diabetes and any precipitants. 3. Treatment options include phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors, topical gels and pellets, vacuum therapy, intra-cavernosal therapy and testosterone replacement therapy. Psychological issues should also be considered.
Structure and Local Variations of the Graphene Moiré on Ir(111)

We have studied the incommensurate moire structure of epitaxial graphene grown on iridium(111) by dynamic low-energy electron diffraction [LEED I(V)] and noncontact atomic force microscopy (AFM) with a CO-terminated tip. Our LEED I(V) results yield the average positions of all the atoms in the surface unit cell and are in qualitative agreement with the structure obtained from density functional theory. The AFM experiments reveal local variations of the moire structure: The corrugation varies smoothly over several moire unit cells between 42 and 56 pm. We attribute these variations to the varying registry between the moire symmetry sites and the underlying substrate. We also observe isolated outliers, where the moire top sites can be offset by an additional 10 pm. This study demonstrates that AFM imaging can be used to directly yield the local surface topography with pm accuracy even on incommensurate two-dimensional structures with varying chemical reactivity.
Resilient H∞ filter design for continues-time systems with D stability constraints

This paper discusses the resilient H∞ filtering problem for a class of continuous-time linear systems with D stability constraints. Attention is focused on the design of a filter such that the filtering error system is quadratic D stability and guarantees a prescribed H∞ performance level, where the filter to be designed is assumed to be with multiplicative gain variations. The design conditions for the resilient H∞ filter are proposed in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). By solving these LMIs, an explicit expression of a desired H∞ filter is given. A simulation example is given to show the efficiency of the proposed design methods.