Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Color vision abnormalities in type 2 diabetes mellitus

Purpose: To assess color vision abnormalities in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients and associated risk factors. Materials and Methods: A prospective study was conducted for 3 months. Patients who is a known case of type 2 diabetes mellitus who presented to our OPD were included in our study. All patients underwent complete ophthalmologic examination which included visual acuity, color vision assessment using Pseudoisochromatic Ishihara chart, slit-lamp biomicroscopy, IOP and fundoscopy. Statistical analyses were performed using the statistical software SPSS for Windows, ver. 16.0. The results were expressed as mean standard deviation if the variables were continuous and as percentages if categorical. Results: The prevalence of color vision abnormalities among diabetics and associated risk factors was assessed. Conclusion: Various studies have been done to know the color vision abnormalities. We evaluated on the associated risk factors as well. Keywords: Diabetes mellitus, Diabetic retinopathy.
Pelagic propagule duration and developmental mode: reassessment of a fading link

Aim As the main or sole motile stage of many aquatic taxa, propagules play a central role in their population dynamics, macroevolution and biogeography. The premises of studies concerned with dispersal, on issues as diverse as marine protected areas, sustainable fisheries and invasive species, commonly make simplified assumptions linking larval development mode (planktotrophic, lecithotrophic) and pelagic propagule duration (PPD) or pelagic larval duration. Because general empirical tests of these connections have yielded equivocal results, we critically examined the relationship between larval mode and PPD in light of regional and taxon-specific criteria. Location Oceans world-wide. Methods We collated data from 190 species from the phylum Echinodermata and used two-way and one-way ANOVA to compare PPD among larval modes, taxonomic classes, geographic regions and climate zones. We also assessed the contribution of egg size, temperature and other continuous predictors using multiple regressions and ANCOVA, and examined whether geographic range size differed among larval modes. Results Our results depart from the common assumption that planktotrophs have longer PPDs than lecithotrophs. Instead, we detected a synergistic influence of phylogeny and climate. No significant difference in PPD between planktotrophs and lecithotrophs occurred in two of the four classes and only four out of nine major ocean basins contained species with significantly different PPDs on the basis of larval mode. Species from colder climates displayed relatively constant PPDs regardless of larval mode, whereas temperate and warm-water species displayed a clearer dichotomy. PPD did not correlate with geographic range size nor did planktotrophs and lecithotrophs exhibit significantly different range sizes. Main conclusions Our findings indicate that larval mode is not a reliable predictor of PPD across broad geographic and taxonomic scales. Instead developmental strategies may instigate shorter or longer PPDs in schemes that are influenced by evolutionary and environmental pressures.
The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0–55 cal kBP)

ABSTRACT Radiocarbon (14C) ages cannot provide absolutely dated chronologies for archaeological or paleoenvironmental studies directly but must be converted to calendar age equivalents using a calibration curve compensating for fluctuations in atmospheric 14C concentration. Although calibration curves are constructed from independently dated archives, they invariably require revision as new data become available and our understanding of the Earth system improves. In this volume the international 14C calibration curves for both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, as well as for the ocean surface layer, have been updated to include a wealth of new data and extended to 55,000 cal BP. Based on tree rings, IntCal20 now extends as a fully atmospheric record to ca. 13,900 cal BP. For the older part of the timescale, IntCal20 comprises statistically integrated evidence from floating tree-ring chronologies, lacustrine and marine sediments, speleothems, and corals. We utilized improved evaluation of the timescales and location variable 14C offsets from the atmosphere (reservoir age, dead carbon fraction) for each dataset. New statistical methods have refined the structure of the calibration curves while maintaining a robust treatment of uncertainties in the 14C ages, the calendar ages and other corrections. The inclusion of modeled marine reservoir ages derived from a three-dimensional ocean circulation model has allowed us to apply more appropriate reservoir corrections to the marine 14C data rather than the previous use of constant regional offsets from the atmosphere. Here we provide an overview of the new and revised datasets and the associated methods used for the construction of the IntCal20 curve and explore potential regional offsets for tree-ring data. We discuss the main differences with respect to the previous calibration curve, IntCal13, and some of the implications for archaeology and geosciences ranging from the recent past to the time of the extinction of the Neanderthals.
Alcohol and cigarette use affecting the relationship between work-life conflict and physical health

ABSTRACT Poor worker health is estimated to cost employers more than half a trillion dollars per year in lost productivity [Japsen, B. (2018, November 15). Poor worker health costs U.S. employer’s half trillion dollars a year. Retrieved March 8, 2019, from https://www.forbes. com/sites/brucejapsen/2018/11/15/poor-worker-health-costs-u-s-employers-half-trillion-dollars-a-year/]. Stress, especially as it pertains to work-family conflicts, has been shown to be a primary contributor to employee health problems [Gisler, S. , Omansky, R. , Alenick, P., Tumminia, A. , Eatough, E. , & Johnson, R. (2018). Work-life conflict and employee health: A review. Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research, 23(4), 1–46. https://doi.org/10.1111/jabr.12157]. This paper investigates how physical health symptoms resulting from increased work-family conflict may be mediated through increased alcohol and cigarette use, and how that relationship is moderated by factors such as family-friendly policies implemented by the organizations, time management, sex of the individual, and norms around the use of these substances among employees. The study examined 1275 blue collar/front-line workers from 60 different small businesses. Alcohol and cigarette use were found to partially mediate the relationship between high levels of work-family conflict and negative physical health symptoms. The availability and ease of use of family-friendly policies moderated the effects of the relationship as well. Results and implications are further discussed.
Volumetric medical image compression using inter‐slice correlation switched prediction approach

With the advancement in medical data acquisition and telemedicine systems, image compression has become an important tool for image handling, as the tremendous amount of data generated in medical field needs to be stored and transmitted effectively. Volumetric MRI and CT images comprise a set of image slices that are correlated to each other. The prediction of the pixels in a slice depends not only upon the spatial information of the slice, but also the inter‐slice information to achieve compression. This article proposes an inter‐slice correlation switched predictor (ICSP) with block adaptive arithmetic encoding (BAAE) technique for 3D medical image data. The proposed ICSP exploits both inter‐slice and intra‐slice redundancies from the volumetric images efficiently. Novelty of the proposed technique is in selecting the correlation coefficient threshold (Tϒ) for switching of ICSP. Resolution independent gradient edge detector (RIGED) at optimal prediction threshold value is proposed for intra‐slice prediction. Use of RIGED, which is modality and resolution independent, brings the novelty and improved performance for 3D prediction of volumetric images. BAAE is employed for encoding of prediction error image to resulting in higher compression efficiency. The proposed technique is also extended for higher bit depth volumetric medical images (16‐bit depth) presenting significant compression gain of 3D images. The performance of the proposed technique is compared with the state‐of‐the art techniques in terms of bits per pixel (BPP) for 8‐bit depth and was found to be 31.21%, 27.55%, 21.89%, and 2.39% better than the JPEG‐2000, CALIC, JPEG‐LS, M‐CALIC, and 3D‐CALIC respectively. The proposed technique is 11.86%, 8.56%, 7.97%, 6.80%, and 4.86% better than the M‐CALIC, 3D CALIC, JPEG‐2000, JPEG‐LS and CALIC respectively for 16‐bit depth image datasets. The average value of compression ratio for 8‐bit and 16‐bit image dataset is obtained as 3.70 and 3.11 respectively by the proposed technique.
Characteristics of Receptors for Excitatory Neurotransmitters

Abstract : The purpose of this research is to investigate the properties of receptors for excitatory neurotransmitters in the central nervous system (CNS), particularly those for acidic amino acids and related derivatives. Most of the synapses in the CNS appear to use these molecules as neurotransmitters but little is known about their receptor properties. Various phosphonic acid derivatives and toxins appear to act directly or indirectly on these receptors. This research uses a newly developed anatomical method to localize the various receptor subtypes in the rodent brain. Electrophysiological analysis is used to record the physiological response to various agonists and antagonists that act on these receptors. Our results have shown, for the first time, that glutamate receptors are most concentrated in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus in addition to key pathways from the peripheral to the CNS. Electrophysiological analysis indicates that select antagonists (e.g., 2-amino-4-phosphonobutyric acid) will block synaptic transmission at some pathways, while other antagonists in this series (e.g., 2-amino-5-phosphonopentanoic acid) will block a type of synaptic short-term memory at other pathways without interfering with normal synaptic transmission. These compounds are thus highly selective in their mode of action.
The Odorant Signaling Pathway

Through the sense of smell mammals can obtain information about food, danger, sexual partners and predators. Two main different types of signals can be recognized by the olfactory system: volatile odorants, which are detected by the olfactory sensory neurons of the nose; and pheromones, which are detected by the vomeronasal neurons of the accessory olfactory system, or vomeronasal organ. These sensory neurons express respectively hundreds of odorant and pheromone receptors, which belong to the superfamily of G protein-coupled receptors. We review the general organization of the main and accessory olfactory systems, the structures of the receptor families in each of these organs and their signaling pathways
A Hybrid Cooperation Scheme for Sub-6 GHz/mmWave Cellular Networks

In this letter, we propose a novel hybrid cooperation scheme in the context of heterogeneous sub-6 GHz/millimeter-wave cellular networks, where users are classified either as cell-center or cell-edge users. Using stochastic geometry tools, we propose an analytical framework to investigate the achieved performance of our proposed scheme. Specifically, analytical expressions for the moments of the conditional success probability are derived and a simple approximation of the meta-distribution is calculated, leveraging the moment-matching method with the Beta-distribution. Our results show that the proposed scheme is beneficial for the cell-edge users, and therefore, the overall network performance is significantly enhanced.
EMU’s asymmetries and asymmetries in German and French influence on EMU governance reforms

ABSTRACT This contribution looks at asymmetries in terms of French and German influence on EMU’s governance reforms during the two decades since the start of EMU in 1999. Drawing on the literature dealing with the sources of power and influence in EU decision-making, this contribution investigates key moments of the evolution and reform of EMU – the establishment and reform of fiscal rules, the creation of fiscal instruments and institutions of risk mutualizing including risk sharing pillars of the Bank Union. It makes a contribution to the literature by providing an account of the asymmetry of German and French influence and power in EMU governance reforms and, most importantly, their variations over time. Furthermore, it contributes to our understanding of the lasting nature of asymmetry in EMU.
A Multicarrier-PWM Scheme Along With a Reconfigurable Buck Converter Imitating Multiple Times Higher Switching Frequency

This letter proposes a novel multicarrier pulsewidth modulation scheme and a reconfigurable dc–dc converter topology, which produces multiple times higher effective switching frequency than the actual switching frequency of the power devices. The reconfigurable topology incorporates multiple switches in series, and their gate pulses are generated using multiple modified and phase-shifted carrier waves. These switches operate alternately to multiply the operating frequency. Since the devices do not actually have to operate at high switching frequency, slower and cheaper power devices can be used. The resulting smaller filter requirement and cheaper power devices make the overall system compact and cost-effective. Moreover, the total switching losses in the proposed converter are distributed among a larger number of devices, which results in low switching loss per device. Consequently, the heatsink requirement comes down. The proposed scheme helps in developing a high-frequency switch mode power supplywithout the use of wide bandgap power devices. Nevertheless, combining the proposed scheme with silicon carbide and gallium nitride-devices can give tremendous enhancement in the operating frequency. The proposed concept has been explained and analyzed in detail and compared with the traditional schemes. Simulation and experimental results validate the concept.
Value Chain Analysis of Honey Sub-sector in Nepal

This is an open access article & it is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) Beekeeping is a low investment and low input business enterprise with immediate return. However, very few researches has been done on value chain analysis of honey sub-sector in Nepal. Such a backdrop, this research gauges the value chain of honey in Nepal focusing value chain function, actors/products flow and enabling business in 2018. Both primary and secondary information were collected using different research instruments in 2018. This study revealed that Apis cerana was the major honey-bee reared in Pyuthan district and about 50% youth were engaged in beekeeping business. Each household have an average of 32 hives ranging from 15 to 80 hives. Average 32 kg honey was consumed at HHs level and 239 kg was sold. The average wholesale rate of honey at farm gate was about NPR 400-450 (USD 3.6-4.1) per kg with the retail price rate was NPR 500 (USD 4.5). An average income earned from honey sale was NPR 60000 (USD 545) per annum ranging from NPR 20000 to 120000. Majority of the beekeepers received training whereas none of them have done insurance. About 55% of the beekeepers have taken loan from saving groups and cooperatives or MFIs. There has not any provision of grading, processing and labelling of the product at producer’s point in the study area. The main threats of beekeeping came from loss of habitat, disease, pest and enemies. This research suggests to develop upgrading practices with facilitation of basic value chain practices for promotion of highquality Nepali honey at global markets.
Bats (Mammalia, Chiroptera) in a remnant of Atlantic Forest, Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil

Biodiversity inventories are essential to generate information leading to the proposal of conservation plans, especially for threatened areas. Despite being one of the best sampled regions for bats in Brazil, some areas of Rio de Janeiro still represent knowledge gaps. Between May 2011 and June 2012, we performed 36 nightly samplings to conduct an inventory of bat species in Reserva Ecologica de Guapiacu, in Cachoeiras de Macacu, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil. We used 10 mist-nets per night opened from sunset to sunrise. A total of 1,290 individuals belonging to 31 bat species were caught. They were distributed in three families, Phyllostomidae (24 species), Vespertilionidae (four species) and Molossidae (three species). We recorded two other species of two families, Noctilionidae and Thyropteridae, by direct observations. The species richness of bats in Reserva Ecologica de Guapiacu is one of the largest ever recorded in the Atlantic Forest. Keywords: rainforest, species richness, abundance, biodiversity inventory.
Spatial concordance between seed rain and seedling establishment in bird‐dispersed trees: does scale matter?

1 We explored whether seedling recruitment was spatially predicted by seed rain (spatial concordance) at different scales (microsite, microhabitat and site) in the bird‐dispersed trees Crataegus monogyna, Ilex aquifolium and Taxus baccata, in temperate secondary forests in north‐west Spain. 2 We propose that both spatial concordance within each scale and consistency of concordance patterns across scales are dependent on differences between seed rain and post‐dispersal processes in the partitioning of spatial variance at each scale. 3 We measured the density of dispersed seeds, the percentage of post‐dispersal seed predation by rodents and the density of emerged first‐year seedlings at sampling stations distributed throughout five microhabitats (under canopies of parental trees and in open gaps) and four localities over two seasons. 4 Seed rain density of all tree species varied most at the microhabitat scale, but microsite and site differences accounted for most of the spatial variance in post‐dispersal seed predation and, especially, in seedling establishment. 5 All three species showed concordance between seed rain and seedling establishment at the microhabitat scale, because strong patchiness in avian‐generated seed rain overrode the slight uncoupling effects exerted by the more homogeneous post‐dispersal processes. Seed rain was also a good predictor of recruitment of Ilex and Crataegus at the microsite scale, but, for Taxus, the rather homogeneous dispersal across microsites contrasted with the heterogeneous post‐dispersal losses. At the site scale, only Taxus showed a positive trend of concordance. 6 Concordance patterns were maintained from microsite to microhabitat in Crataegus and Ilex, and from microhabitat to site in Taxus. Low‐variance allocation to the site scale at the seed rain stage precluded complete consistency in Crataegus and Ilex. 7 Positive responses of recruitment to seed dispersal depended on both species and scale, resulting in a complex template for dispersal‐limitation effects on metapopulations and communities.
Nothing to Sneeze at: Histamine and Histamine Receptors in Oral Carcinogenesis.

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), the most common oral malignancy, shows an increasing rate of incidence worldwide. In spite of the recent advances in cancer research, OSCC therapy continues to have unfavourable outcomes, and thus patient's prognosis remains relatively poor. Current research has been devoted to identifying novel therapeutic targets also in the tumour microenvironment (TME). Histamine and its G-protein coupled receptors (H1R-H4R) play vital roles in multiple cancer-associated processes in TME, where histamine is mainly produced by mast cells. However, oral epithelial cells were recently shown to produce low concentrations of histamine in autocrine and paracrine modes. These findings, together with the discovery of the high-affinity histamine H4 receptor, have led to a massive increase in our understanding of histamine functions. This minireview aims to summarize the most recent findings regarding histamine and its receptors and their involvement in oral carcinogenesis-from oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs) to invasive OSCC. Importantly, histamine receptors are differentially expressed in OPMDs and OSCC. Furthermore, H1R and H4R are associated with clinicopathological characteristics of OSCC patients, suggesting a role in prognosis. Due to the enormous success of histamine-based medications, histamine receptors may also represent promising and viable drug targets in oral cancer.
Fenomena Cyberslacking pada Mahasiswa

Pada zaman sekarang ini Internet telah menjadi kebutuhan yang tak terhindarkan dalam kehidupan sehari-hari terutama pada kalangan mahasiswa. Hal ini menimbulkan perilaku cyberslacking pada mahasiswa. Cyberslacking dapat ditemukan ketika mereka mengakses internet untuk hal yang tidak berkaitan dengan kelas yang sedang berlangsung. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui gambaran perilaku cyberslacking pada mahasiswa jurusan psikologi Universitas Negeri Semarang. Cyberslacking terdiri atas lima aspek yaitu sharing, shopping, real time updating, accessing online content, dan gaming . Data dikumpulkan dari 42 mahasiswa dengan menggunakan skala cyberslacking . Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa tingkat cyberslacking pada mahasiswa psikologi berada pada kategori sedang atau sebesar 50% (mean=74,67, SD=19,444), sementara 50% sisanya berada pada kategori rendah. Nowadays Internet has become an unavoidable necessity in daily life, especially among students. This raises cyberslacking behavior in students. Cyberslacking can be found when they access the internet for things not related to the ongoing class. The purpose of this study was to determine the description of cyberslacking behavior in psychology students at Semarang State University. Cyberslacking consists of five aspects, namely sharing, shopping, real time updating, accessing online content, and gaming. Data were collected from 42 students using the cyberslacking scale. The results showed that the level of cyberslacking in psychology students was in the moderate category or at 50% (mean = 74.67, SD = 19.444), while the remaining 50% was in the low category .