Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Calibrating magnification bias for the EG statistic to test general relativity

We assess the effect of magnification bias on the $E_G$ statistic for probing gravity. $E_G$, a statistic constructed from power spectrum estimates of both weak lensing and redshift space distortions (RSD), directly tests general relativity (GR) while in principle being independent of clustering bias. This property has motivated its recent use in multiple tests of GR. Recent work has suggested that the magnification bias of galaxies due to foreground matter perturbations breaks the bias-independence of the $E_G$ statistic. The magnitude of this effect is very sensitive to the clustering and magnification biases of the galaxy sample. We show that for realistic values of the clustering and magnification biases, the effect for magnification bias is small relative to statistical errors for most spectroscopic galaxy surveys but large for photometric galaxy surveys. For the cases with significant magnification bias, we propose a method to calibrate magnification bias using measurements of the lensing auto-power spectrum. We test this calibration method using simulations, finding that our calibration method can calibrate $E_G$ from 2-4 times the simulation error to well within the errors, although its accuracy is sensitive to the precision of the measured redshift distribution and magnification bias, but not the clustering bias. This work gives strong evidence that this method will work increasingly well in future CMB lensing surveys.
Scythes, sickles and other blades: defining the diversity of pectoral fin morphotypes in Pachycormiformes

The traditional terminology of ‘scythe’ or ‘sickle’ shaped is observed to be flawed as an effective descriptor for pectoral fin shape in pachycormids. The diversity of pachycormid pectoral fin shapes is assessed across the 14 recognised genera that preserve complete pectoral fins, and improved terms are defined to more effectively describe their form, supported by anatomical observation and aspect ratio analysis of individual fins, and corroborated by landmark analysis. Three clear and distinct pectoral fin structural morphotypes emerge (falceform, gladiform, falcataform), reflecting a diversity of pachycormid lifestyles throughout the Mesozoic, from agile pursuit predator to slow-cruising suspension feeder.
Player Superstition as a Design Resource Ben Kirman

EXTENDED ABSTRACT Superstition is a deeply rooted cultural belief in supernatural causality. Many examples exist in various cultures the association of black cats with bad luck, aversion to the number 13 and the ability of the Sambucus tree to ward off witches. Sports and competitive games are steeped in superstition. For example, coaches wearing lucky hats, and baseball pitchers and rugby kickers developing elaborate ‘lucky’ routines. Players quickly make fallacious causal links between their actions and positive consequences experienced within game play (e.g., Lincolnshire Echo 2014). The lucky blow on the dice in Craps (Henslin 1967), or the lucky d20 used in a crucial battle with a dragon. The emergence of superstitions are usually not by design, however we propose this unusual psychological quirk has the potential to create uniquely rich interactive experiences. For example, the PC roguelike UnReal World RPG (Enormous Elk, 2015) explicitly builds on superstition as part of the mechanics. Within the Iron Age setting of the game, players can perform “rituals” which are suggested to influence their favour with gods and spirits. These rituals have an unclear effect on the game systemWas that wild reindeer just chance or in fact a reward from the spirits (i.e. game code) for attending to the appropriate ritual? Although a small part of the game, we argue this folkloric dynamic stirs an ancient psychological response that reinforces the Iron Age narrative for the modern player.
TOTAL POLYPHENOLIC CONTENT AND FREE RADICAL QUENCHING POTENTIAL OF DIOSCOREA ALATA L. TUBERS

Objective: In the context of today’s scenario of disease progression due to oxidative stress, there is a need to find out natural antioxidants of plant origin. Several plants have been used as food as well as medicine. Dioscorea alata L. (DA) is one of the plants routinely used as food and medicine and can be effectively utilized as source of natural antioxidants. DA is an important staple food as well as medicinal plant but its scientific authentication and mechanism of action has not been investigated. Methods: We investigated ethanolic and water extracts of DA for its polyphenolic content and free radical quenching potential using in vitro system. Results: Both the extracts showed high reductive potential and total antioxidant capacity. Similarly, it has effective free radical scavenging potential against 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl, nitric oxide and lipid peroxidation. Comparatively, potency of ethanol extract resembles with standard ascorbic acid, which may be due to presence of different classes of phenolic compounds. Water extract also showed presence of polyphenols except flavonols. There was positive correlation between total phenol, total flavonoids, total flavonol, total proanthocyanidins content and free radical scavenging activity of plant. Conclusion: The data clearly demonstrated that DA tubers are potential source of natural antioxidants and may be a good candidate for pharmaceutical plant based products. Studies on its mechanism of action may yield a potential compound against oxidative stress.
Protein synthesis rates of muscle, tendon, ligament, cartilage, and bone tissue in vivo in humans

Skeletal muscle plasticity is reflected by a dynamic balance between protein synthesis and breakdown, with basal muscle tissue protein synthesis rates ranging between 0.02 and 0.09%/h. Though it is evident that other musculoskeletal tissues should also express some level of plasticity, data on protein synthesis rates of most of these tissues in vivo in humans is limited. Six otherwise healthy patients (62±3 y), scheduled to undergo unilateral total knee arthroplasty, were subjected to primed continuous intravenous infusions with L-[ring-13C6]-Phenylalanine throughout the surgical procedure. Tissue samples obtained during surgery included muscle, tendon, cruciate ligaments, cartilage, bone, menisci, fat, and synovium. Tissue-specific fractional protein synthesis rates (%/h) were assessed by measuring the incorporation of L-[ring-13C6]-Phenylalanine in tissue protein and were compared with muscle tissue protein synthesis rates using a paired t test. Tendon, bone, cartilage, Hoffa’s fat pad, anterior and posterior cruciate ligament, and menisci tissue protein synthesis rates averaged 0.06±0.01, 0.03±0.01, 0.04±0.01, 0.11±0.03, 0.07±0.02, 0.04±0.01, and 0.04±0.01%/h, respectively, and did not significantly differ from skeletal muscle protein synthesis rates (0.04±0.01%/h; P>0.05). Synovium derived protein (0.13±0.03%/h) and intercondylar notch bone tissue protein synthesis rates (0.03±0.01%/h) were respectively higher and lower compared to skeletal muscle protein synthesis rates (P<0.05 and P<0.01, respectively). Basal protein synthesis rates in various musculoskeletal tissues are within the same range of skeletal muscle protein synthesis rates, with fractional muscle, tendon, bone, cartilage, ligament, menisci, fat, and synovium protein synthesis rates ranging between 0.02 and 0.13% per hour in vivo in humans. Clinical trial registration: NTR5147
Effects of alpha-galactosidase supplementation to corn-soybean meal diets on nutrient utilization, performance, serum indices and organ weight in broilers

Effects of alpha-galactosidase (GAL) on broiler corn-soybean meal diet was investigated. In experiment 1, sixty cockerels were allocated to five groups, including three enzyme treatments (GAL added at 0, 500, and 1,000 mg/kg diet), a nitrogen-free diet group and a fast group. The true nitrogen-corrected ME (TMEn) and true amino acid availability were determined. In experiment 2, 324 day-old chicks were used in a 2×3 factorial design consisting of two energy contents (high and low) and three GAL levels (0, 250, and 500 mg/kg). Three feeding phases, comprising 0-21 d, 22-35 d and 36-48 d, were involved. GAL addition improved TMEn and the availability of methionine and cystine (p<0.05). The apparent ME (AME) or nitrogen-corrected AME (AMEn) and digestibility of dry matter, organic matter, calcium, and phosphorus were improved significantly on d 21, so was crude protein and an interaction of energy and GAL on AMEn (p<0.05) was found on d 35. However, daily intake and daily gain were significantly improved with GAL addition (p<0.05) during 21 d. The small intestine relative weight decreased at 250 mg/kg GAL (p<0.05) on d 35, whereas presented an interaction between GAL and energy on d 21 (p<0.05). Likewise, this treatment increased breast muscle ratio (p<0.05). On d 21, triglycerides level of broilers showed interaction between energy and enzyme levels (p<0.05). Uric acid level in 500 mg/kg GAL declined linearly (p<0.05). On d 35, quadratic effects (p<0.05) were observed in total protein, albumin, globulin and cholesterol content for enzyme supplementation. And the interactive effects of energy and GAL on serum values showed more obviously. The study implies that GAL improved energy and nutrient availability of corn-soybean meal diet in broiler. The GAL supplementation to corn-soybean meal based diet can improve performance of broilers in early stages of growth. (Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci. 2005. Vol 18, No. 12 : 1761- 1768)
Artificial Magneto-superstrates for Gain and Efficiency Improvement of Microstrip Antenna Arrays

This paper presents an engineered magneto-dielectric superstrates designed to en- hance the gain and e-ciency of a microstrip antenna array without any substantial increase in the antenna proflle. The broadside coupled split ring resonator (SRR) inclusions are used in the design of the superstrate. Numerical full-wave simulations of a 4 £ 1 linear microstrip antenna array working at the resonance frequency of 2.18GHz and covered by the superstrate show a gain enhancement of about 3.5dB and an e-ciency improvement of 10%. The total height of the proposed structure, is ‚0=7 where ‚0 is the free-space operating wavelength.
The Effect of Sertoli Cells on Xenotransplantation and Allotransplantation of Ventral Mesencephalic Tissue in a Rat Model of Parkinson’s Disease

Intra-striatal transplantation of fetal ventral mesencephalic (VM) tissue has a therapeutic effect on patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Sertoli cells (SCs) possess immune-modulatory properties that benefit transplantation. We hypothesized that co-graft of SCs with VM tissue can attenuate rejection. Hemi-parkinsonian rats were generated by injecting 6-hydroxydopamine into the right medial forebrain bundle of Sprague Dawley (SD) rats. The rats were then intrastriatally transplanted with VM tissue from rats or pigs (rVM or pVM), with/without a co-graft of SCs (rVM+SCs or pVM+SCs). Recovery of dopaminergic function and survival of the grafts were evaluated using the apomorphine-induced rotation test and small animal-positron emission tomography (PET) coupled with [18F] DOPA or [18F] FE-PE2I, respectively. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) examination was used to determine the survival of the grafted dopaminergic neurons in the striatum and to investigate immune-modulatory effects of SCs. The results showed that the rVM+SCs and pVM+SCs groups had significantly improved drug-induced rotational behavior compared with the VM alone groups. PET revealed a significant increase in specific uptake ratios (SURs) of [18F] DOPA and [18F] FE-PE2I in the grafted striatum of the rVM+SCs and pVM+SCs groups as compared to that of the rVM and pVM groups. SC and VM tissue co-graft led to better dopaminergic (DA) cell survival. The co-grafted groups exhibited lower populations of T-cells and activated microglia compared to the groups without SCs. Our results suggest that co-graft of SCs benefit both xeno- and allo-transplantation of VM tissue in a PD rat model. Use of SCs enhanced the survival of the grafted dopaminergic neurons and improved functional recovery. The enhancement may in part be attributable to the immune-modulatory properties of SCs. In addition, [18F]DOPA and [18F]FE-PE2I coupled with PET may provide a feasible method for in vivo evaluation of the functional integrity of the grafted DA cell in parkinsonian rats.
Asymptomatic malaria in the clinical and public health context

ABSTRACT Introduction: Historically, the global community has focused on the control of symptomatic malaria. However, interest in asymptomatic malaria has been growing, particularly in the context of malaria elimination. Areas covered: We undertook a comprehensive PubMed literature review on asymptomatic malaria as it relates to detection and elimination with emphasis between 2014 and 2019. Diagnostic tools with a low limit of detection (LOD) have allowed us to develop a more detailed understanding of asymptomatic malaria and its impact. These highly sensitive diagnostics have demonstrated that the prevalence of asymptomatic malaria is greater than previously thought. In addition, it is now possible to detect the malaria reservoir in the community, something that was previously not feasible. Asymptomatic malaria has previously not been treated, but research has begun to examine whether treating individuals with asymptomatic malaria may lead to health benefits. Finally, we have begun to understand the importance of asymptomatic malaria in ongoing transmission. Expert opinion: Therefore, with malaria elimination back on the agenda, asymptomatic malaria can no longer be ignored, especially in light of new ultra-sensitive diagnostic tools.
Control of deep convection by sub-cloud lifting processes: the ALP closure in the LMDZ5B general circulation model

Recently, a new conceptual framework for deep convection scheme triggering and closure has been developed and implemented in the LMDZ5B general cir- culation model, based on the idea that deep convection is controlled by sub-cloud lifting processes. Such processes include boundary-layer thermals and evaporatively-driven cold pools (wakes), which provide an available lifting energy that is compared to the convective inhibition to trigger deep convection, and an available lifting power (ALP) at cloud base, which is used to compute the con- vective mass flux assuming the updraft vertical velocity at the level of free convection. While the ALP closure was shown to delay the local hour of maximum precipitation over land in better agreement with observations, it results in an underestimation of the convection intensity over the tropical ocean both in the 1D and 3D configurations of the model. The specification of the updraft vertical velocity at the level of free convection appears to be a key aspect of the closure formulation, as it is weaker over tropical ocean than over land and weaker in moist mid-latitudes than semi-arid regions. We propose a formulation making this velocity increase with the level of free convection, so that the ALP closure is adapted to various environments. Cloud-resolving model simulations of observed oceanic and continental case studies are used to evaluate the rep- resentation of lifting processes and test the assumptions at the basis of the ALP closure formulation. Results favor closures based on the lifting power of sub-grid sub-cloud processes rather than those involving quasi-equilibrium with the large-scale environment. The new version of the model including boundary-layer thermals and cold pools coupled together with the deep convection scheme via the ALP closure significantly improves the representation of various observed case studies in 1D mode. It also sub- stantially modifies precipitation patterns in the full 3D version of the model, including seasonal means, diurnal cycle and intraseasonal variability.
Robust volumetric reconstruction from noisy multi-view foreground occupancy masks

We recover the shape of a moving object, represented by the occupancy of grid voxels in the physical space, from the consistency of its foreground occupancy in multiple camera views. To deal with the noise due to loose temporal synchronization, lighting variation and calibration errors, we integrate the foreground occupancy of each grid voxel over its local neighborhood. Especially, we design a way to decouple each integral direction, so that the accumulation along this direction can be efficiently computed by integrating pixels along a row/column in the transformed foreground masks, which also enables the access to the intermediate physical positions between two neighboring voxels. We further accelerate this integration by using the technique of integral images. The performance of the proposed method has been investigated experimentally.
AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TOWARDS EXCAVATING RELEVANT ASSOCIATIONS IN HIDDEN WEBS

The amount of webpages available online keeps growing greatly daily. Within this situation searching relevant information online is difficult task. Also wide coverage, high quality, large volume and depth from the dynamic nature from the Web are really a challenge. We advise a 2-stage framework, namely Web Spider, for effectively farming deep web connects. Within the first stage that's site locating, center pages are looked with the aid of search engines like Google which avoid going to a lot of pages. To attain more precise recent results for a focused crawl, Web Spider ranks websites you prioritized highly relevant ones for any given subject. Within the second stage, adaptive link-ranking accomplishes fast in-site searching by digging up best links. To get rid of bias on going to some highly related links in hidden web sites, we design a hyperlink tree data structure to get wider coverage for any website. To deal with this issue, previous work has suggested two kinds of crawlers, generic crawlers and focused crawlers. Generic crawlers fetch all searchable forms and can't concentrate on a particular subject. However, because of the large amount of web sources and also the dynamic nature of deep web, achieving wide coverage and efficiency is really a challenging issue. Within the first stage, Web Spider performs site-based trying to find center pages with the aid of search engines like Google, staying away from going to a lot of pages. To attain better recent results for a focused crawl, Web Spider ranks websites you prioritized highly relevant ones for any given subject. To get rid of bias on going to some highly relevant links in hidden web sites, we design a hyperlink tree data structure to attain wider coverage for any website.
Effects of Food Deprivation and Feeding Ratio on the Growth, Feed Utilization and Body Composition of Juvenile Olive Flounder Paralichthys olivaceus

The effects of food deprivation and feeding ratio on the growth, feed utilization and body composition of juvenile olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus were investigated in 810 juvenile fish averaging 6.4 g in weight randomly distributed in 27 400-L flowthrough tanks. A 3 [food deprivation: 8-week feeding without food deprivation (8W), 7-week feeding after 1-week food deprivation (7W) and 6-week feeding after 2-week food deprivation (6W)] × 3 (feeding ratio: 100%, 95% and 90% of satiation, hereafter denoted by 100, 95 and 90, respectively) factorial design was applied. The weight gain of the fish was significantly affected by both food deprivation and feeding ratio. The weight gain of the fish under the 8W-100 treatment was higher than that of those under the 7W-95, 7W-90, 6W-100, 6W-95 and 6W-90 treatments, but did not differ from those of fish under the 8W-95, 8W-90 and 7W-100 treatments. The specific growth rate (SGR) and the feed intake of the fish were affected by both food deprivation and feeding ratio. However, the feed conversion ratio (FCR) was unaffected by both food deprivation and feeding ratio. The protein efficiency ratio (PER) was affected by the feeding ratio, but not by food deprivation. The protein retention (PR) was affected by food deprivation, but not by feeding ratio. Juvenile olive flounder subjected to 1-week food deprivation at 100% satiation (7W-100 treatment) achieved full compensatory growth.
Sleep disordered breathing in Marfan syndrome: Value of standard screening questionnaires

A high prevalence of sleep disordered breathing (SDB) has been reported in persons with Marfan syndrome (MFS), a single gene disorder of connective tissue resulting in premature death from aortic rupture. The burden of SDB and accompanying hemodynamic stress could warrant broad screening in this population. Our goal was to assess the utility of traditional SDB screening tools in our sample of persons with MFS.
The World Health Organization 2030 goals for Taenia solium: Insights and perspectives from transmission dynamics modelling

Taenia solium (TS), responsible for porcine cysticercosis, human taeniasis and (neuro)cysticercosis, was included in the World Health Organization neglected tropical disease (NTD) roadmap published in 2012. Targets set in this roadmap have not been met, but T. solium has been included in the consultation process for the new 2030 goals proposed for priority NTDs. Taenia solium transmission dynamics models can contribute to this process. A recent review has compared existing T. solium transmission models, identifying their similarities and differences in structure, parameterization and modelled intervention approaches. While a formal model comparison to investigate the impact of interventions is yet to be conducted, the models agree on the importance of coverage for intervention effectiveness and on the fact that human- and pig-focused interventions can be optimally combined. One of these models, cystiSim, an individual-based, stochastic model has been used to assess field-applicable interventions, some currently under evaluation in on-going trials in Zambia. The EPICYST, population-based, deterministic model has highlighted, based on simulating a generic sub-Saharan Africa setting, the higher efficacy (measured as the percentage of human cysticercosis cases prevented) of biomedical interventions (human and pig treatment and pig vaccination) compared to improved husbandry, sanitation, and meat inspection. Important questions remain regarding which strategies and combinations thereof provide sustainable solutions for severely resource-constrained endemic settings. Defining realistic timeframes to achieve feasible targets, and establishing suitable measures of effectiveness for these targets that can be quantified with current monitoring and evaluation tools, are current major barriers to identifying validated strategies. Taenia solium transmission models can support setting achievable 2030 goals; however, the refinement of these models is first required. Incorporating socio-economic elements, improved understanding of underlying biological processes, and consideration of spatial dynamics are key knowledge gaps that need addressing to support model development.
Modif ied LDPC decoding rule for pulse position modulation

In this letter, a modified grouped bit-flipping decoding algorithm for low-density parity-check (LDPC) coded pulse position modulation (PPM) signals is proposed. The improvement in performance is observed by Monte Carlo simulations. The coding gain is more than 1 and 2 dB for the order numbers of PPM of 4 and 16 respectively.