Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relationship between alleles of gene BoLA-DRB3 and somatic cells amount in milk of Ukrainian black-and-white dairy breed

A significant genetic correlation between the indicator of the somatic milk cells amount (SCC) and intrama mmary infection has been established, making it possible to use it in breeding programs for reducing of mastitis in cows. Various studies demonstrated that resistance (susceptibility) to mastitis is genetically predetermined. Among the genes associated with diseases, special attention is paid to exon 2 of the gene BoLA-DRB3, which is quite polymor -phic. The aim of the study was to identify associations between alleles of the gene BoLA-DRB3 and SCC among cows of Ukrainian black-and-white dairy breed (N = 92). The RFLP-PCR method revealed 31 BoLA-DRB3.2 alleles. The relative risk index and the χ 2 test were used to establish a link between the allele frequencies and the SCC. Two alleles with strong association with low level of SCC (CI = 0.95): BoLA-DRB3.2*22 (P(A) = 0 . 06; RR = – 3 . 43; χ 2 = 3 . 84) and BoLA-DRB3.2*28 (P(A) = 0 . 076; RR = -4 . 14; χ 2 = 6 . 17)were revealed,. An additional check using the precise Fisher’s exact test controlled by Pearson’s contingency coefficient showed that only allele BoLA-DRB 3.2*28 can be used as a marker in connection with low SCC in cows of Ukrainian black-and-white dairy breed. The allele *28 as a SCC marker was revealed for the first time. Analysis of previous studies shows discrepancies between the results that link different BoLA-DRB3.2 alleles with SCC, obtained for different breeds and even within the same breed. In future, it is necessary to expand the research by increasing the research sample and determine the associations between the number of somatic cells not only in connection with allelic polymorphism, but also in connection with the genotypes of the BoLA-DRB3 gene. Interstitial application of the new antibacterial liposomal preparation has led to a decrease in the number of somatic cell cultures in the afflicted animals with subclinical mastitis of cows.
The utilization of intra-operative recurrent laryngeal nerve monitoring in predicting vocal fold mobility after thyroid and parathyroid surgery

The role of intraoperative nerve monitoring in thyroid and parathyroid surgery has evolved over the past 15 years. Despite advances in technology there remains controversy regarding the role of nerve monitoring. The purpose of this paper was to review the relevant literature on the topic of intraoperative nerve monitoring with a particular emphasis on the efficacy of nerve monitoring to predict postoperative vocal fold mobility. In addition the paper will assess the role of nerve monitoring as an adjunct to clinical judgment regarding staging bilateral thyroid surgery when the first nerve fails to respond to intraoperative stimulation. Correspondence to: Frank R. Miller, Professor and Interim Chairman, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78229, USA, Mob: 210325-1826; Tel: 210-450-0719; Fax: 210-450-0055; E-mail: millerfr@uthscsa.edu
Study of the effects of low temperatures on the morphological status of ram spermatozoa

The aim of the study was to evaluate how the process of cryopreservation influenced the morphological status of ram sperm. The experiment was carried out with 26 sexually matured, pure bred rams during their breeding campaign. The animals were divided in two groups according to the breed – 15 rams from Synthetic Population of Bulgarian Milk (SPBM) and 11 rams from Sofia breed (SB). The sperm morphology was evaluated under microscope (Nikon Eclipse E200, Japan) by staining with SpermBlue (Microptic, Spain), performed according to the manufacturer's protocol, and observed under bright field with magnification of ×40. Cryopreservation of semen straws was done by the method of Cassou (1964). After cryopreservation, the percentage of spermatozoa with normal morphology decreased and those with abnormal morphology increased. This difference was more pronounced at rams from SPBM compared to SB rams. After freezing, the percentage of spermatozoa with damage to the head at rams from both breeds increased. The percentage of the spermatozoa with damage in the midpiece and the tail was higher and significant (P<0.001) for the SPBM rams. The low temperatures of cryopreservation had a detrimental effect to the rams’ sperm structures. This damaging effect was much stronger for the rams from SPBM breed compared to rams from Sofia breed.
Composition, diversity and foraging guilds of avifauna in agricultural landscapes In Panipat, Haryana, India

Avian communities are very good indicators of integrity and stability of ecosystem structure and functions. Assessment of bird assemblages in different landscapes is therefore emphasized from an environmental monitoring viewpoint. Bird surveys were carried out from April 2015 to March 2016 to document the avian species assemblage of agricultural landscapes in Panipat, Haryana, India. Point-transect in amalgam with opportunistic encounter methods were used to collect data. A total of 101 bird species under 44 families and 15 orders were recorded from the study area. The bird species richness was highest for the order Passeriformes (48), followed by Pelecaniformes (15), Charadriiformes (6), and the remaining 12 orders. Ardeidae was the most diverse bird family in the study area. Among the recorded avifauna, 77 species were residents, 18 species were winter migrants and six species were summer migrants. Species richness was recorded to be highest in the month of January compared to the remaining months. Species richness, abundance, diversity and evenness differed significantly (P < 0.05) between seasons as well as among the agricultural landscapes. Most bird species were insectivorous (36) followed by carnivorous (26), omnivorous (24), granivorous (9), frugivorous (5) and nectarivorous (1). Painted Stork Mycteria leucocephala, Black-necked Stork Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus, Black-headed Ibis Threskiornis melanocephalus, and Alexandrine Parakeet Psittacula eupatria are four Near Threatened species found in this region. Interestingly, five species having globally declining population trends are still common in the study area. The observed richness of avian species in the study area calls for further studies on habitat preference, seasonal changes, nest ecology, and breeding biology to understand species specii¬c roles of birds in agro-ecosystems.
BALANCING PRIVACY, PRECISION ANDPERFORMANCE IN DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS

Privacy, Precision, and Performance (3Ps) are three fundamental design objectives in distributed systems. However, these properties tend to compete with one another and are not considered absolute properties or functions. They must be defined and justified in terms of a system, its resources, stakeholder concerns, and the security threat model. To date, distributed systems research has only considered the trade-offs of balancing privacy, precision, and performance in a pairwise fashion. However, this dissertation formally explores the space of trade-offs among all 3Ps by examining three representative classes of distributed systems, namely Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), cloud systems, and Data Stream Management Systems (DSMSs). These representative systems support large part of the modern and mission-critical distributed systems. WSNs are real-time systems characterized by unreliable network interconnections and highly constrained computational and power resources. The dissertation proposes a privacy-preserving in-network aggregation protocol for WSNs demonstrating that the 3Ps could be navigated by adopting the appropriate algorithms and cryptographic techniques that are not prohibitively expensive. Next, the dissertation highlights the privacy and precision issues that arise in cloud databases due to the eventual consistency models of the cloud. To address these issues, consistency enforcement techniques across cloud servers are proposed and the trade-offs between 3Ps are discussed to help guide cloud database users on how to balance these properties. Lastly, the 3Ps properties are examined in DSMSs which are characterized by high volumes of unbounded input data streams and strict real-time processing constraints. Within this system, the 3Ps are balanced through a proposed simple and efficient technique that applies access control policies over shared operator networks to achieve privacy and precision without sacrificing the systems performance. Despite that in this dissertation, it was shown that, with the right set of protocols and algorithms, the desirable 3P properties can co-exist in a balanced way in well-established distributed systems, this dissertation is promoting the use of the new 3Ps-by-design concept. This concept is meant to encourage distributed systems designers to proactively consider the interplay among the 3Ps from the initial stages of the systems design lifecycle rather than identifying them as add-on properties to systems.
Multigradient recursive reinforcement learning NN control for affine nonlinear systems with unmodeled dynamics

In this paper, an adaptive reinforcement learning approach is developed for a class of discrete‐time affine nonlinear systems with unmodeled dynamics. The multigradient recursive (MGR) algorithm is employed to solve the local optimal problem, which is inherent in gradient descent method. The MGR radial basis function neural network approximates the utility functions and unmodeled dynamics, which has a faster rate of convergence than that of the gradient descent method. A novel strategic utility function and cost function are defined for the affine systems. Finally, it concludes that all the signals in the closed‐loop system are semiglobal uniformly ultimately bounded through differential Lyapunov function method, and two simulation examples are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
Spectroscopic diagnosis of zinc contaminated soils based on competitive adaptive reweighted sampling algorithm and an improved support vector machine

Abstract Soil contamination by heavy metals is of great concern due to the increasing intensity of anthropogenic activities and requires a reliable approach to rapidly diagnose heavy metal pollution in soils. In this study conducted in northern Shandong Province, China, a total of 110 soil samples were collected to determine the zinc concentration and their visible and near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy was applied to diagnose zinc contaminated soils. Pearson’s correlation analysis and competitive adaptive reweighted sampling algorithm were compared to select active bands as independent variables. Partial least squares regression and particle swarm optimization support vector machine method were applied to estimate zinc concentration and a leave-one-out cross-validation was used to validate data sets. Results show that the obvious accumulations of zinc were in topsoil at the study area. Partial least squares regression estimates of zinc concentrations were improved with competitive adaptive reweighted sampling algorithm. The optimized support vector machine model, based on the first derivative of spectra, achieved the best accuracy for zinc concentration estimation with ratio of performance to deviation of 2.74. The method of active band extracting by competitive adaptive reweighted sampling algorithm was responsible for the improved model performance because competitive adaptive reweighted sampling algorithms determined active bands which can be useful for interpreting complex relations with soil compounds, such as soil organic matter, iron oxide, and clay minerals. In addition, the climate in specific research areas plays an important role in active band selection as a result of soil constituent changes. This study indicated that a combination model of competitive adaptive reweighted sampling algorithm and optimized support vector machine (R2 = 0.88; RMSE = 6.74, RPD = 2.74) can be recommended for estimating zinc concentrations in polluted soils and can provide improved understanding of the estimation mechanism and an alternative approach for diagnosing soil contamination.
On the Derivation of Geometric Optical Kernels for Directional Thermal Radiation

The derivation of widely used geometric optical (GO) kernels in bidirectional reflectance distribution function models, that is, LiSparseReciprocal kernel (KGOLSR) and LiDenseReciprocal kernel, was based on two important assumptions: (1) The shaded components are perfect black and (2) the contributions of two sunlit components are identical. Different from the bidirectional reflectance, thermal radiation directionality effect mainly results from component temperature differences, suggesting the above assumptions are not applicable in most situations. Therefore, this study derived GO kernels for thermal radiation based on temperature differences rather than illumination differences. Specifically, four GO kernels, that is, KGO4 with considering sunlit/shaded vegetation and sunlit/shaded soil, KGO3 with considering sunlit/shaded soil and vegetation, KGO2 with considering vegetation and soil, and KGOg only considering the hottest sunlit soil, have been developed. By using a comprehensive simulated data set, their performances have been thoroughly evaluated and the comparison with KGOLSR has also been analyzed in depth. Results showed that (1) KGO4 had the highest accuracy and KGO3 was the second; in the case of only two available angles, KGOg performed best. (2) Variables such as component temperature, component emissivity, solar zenith angle, and the percentage of tree crown cover mainly affected the comparison result between KGOLSR and KGO2; KGOLSR would have a better performance for a scene with a stronger vegetation effect. Moreover, the best values of two structure characteristics, that is, the crown shape parameter b/r and relative height h/b, for these five kernels have been determined, which can provide instruction for practical application.
Detection of Constant Phase Shifts in Filters for Sound Field Synthesis

Reviewed Paper at ICSA 2019 Presented ∗ by VDT. Detection of Constant Phase Shifts in Filters for Sound Field Synthesis Frank Schultz, Nara Hahn, and Sascha Spors University of Rostock, Institute of Communications Engineering Email: {frank.schultz, nara.hahn, sascha.spors@uni-rostock.de}
Phänomenologie und klinische Bedeutung des Flammer-Syndroms

Zusammenfassung Das Flammer-Syndrom (FS) beschreibt den Phänotyp von Menschen mit einer Prädisposition für eine veränderte Reaktion der Blutgefäße auf Stimuli wie Kälte, emotionellen Stress oder große Höhe. Häufige Symptome sind: kalte Hände und/oder Füße, tiefer Blutdruck, verlängerte Einschlafzeit, reduziertes Durstgefühl, gesteigerte Empfindlichkeit für Gerüche, Schmerzen, Vibrationen und gewisse Medikamente. Menschen mit FS sind im Allgemeinen strebsam und erfolgreich, aber auch perfektionistisch und teils grüblerisch. Häufige Zeichen sind: veränderte Genexpression, verlängerter Flussstillstand in den Nagelfalzkapillaren nach Kälteprovokation, verminderte Autoregulation der okularen Durchblutung, reduzierte Gefäßerweiterung auf Flickerlichtstimulation. Der retinale Venendruck ist im Mittel höher und die Astrozyten sind häufiger aktiviert. FS ist häufiger bei Frauen als bei Männern, häufiger bei dünnen als bei dicken und bei jungen als bei alten Menschen, häufiger bei Akademikern als bei Nichtakademikern. Es ist sehr selten bei Menschen mit Berufen im Freien. Es ist assoziiert mit Normaldruckglaukom, okularen Gefäßverschlüssen, Retinitis pigmentosa, multipler Sklerose, Tinnitus und seltener sogar mit Hörstürzen.
Characterization of cancer family history among patients with PCa cancer.

272Background: Family history (FH) is a well-documented risk factor for prostate cancer (PCa). Certain cancers (Ca) are also shown to co-segregate in families. This study evaluated Ca FH in PCa patients (pts) and the impact of FH on clinical covariates. Methods: FHs were collected from 535 PCa pts at Tulane Hospital between 2015 and 2016. Incidence rates of familial Cas were analyzed. Age at diagnosis (dx), Gleason score, and the presence of metastases at any time were documented. Chi-square and the Mann-Whitney U tests were performed to identify correlations between clinical parameters and FH. Results: 435 pts (81.3%) had a Ca FH. 281 pts (52.5%) had ≥2 relatives with Ca. Rates of breast, lung, colorectal, pancreatic Ca, and leukemia FH did not vary between pts diagnosed at ≤55 and those diagnosed over 55. Pts with PCa FH were more likely than pts with no PCa FH to have an age of dx ≤55 (p= 0.0169). Median age at dx was 59 for pts with PCa FH and 64 for pts with no PCa FH. PCa FH did not affect Gleason s.
Hospitalizaciones breves en un servicio de pediatría

Conocer los motivos y caracteristicas de las hospitalizaciones, es esencial para la gestion sanitaria. Es posible que algunas, especialmente las mas breves, puedan evitarse. Identificar y evitar las hospitalizaciones potencialmente evitables contribuye a mejorar la calidad asistencial. El objetivo de este trabajo fue conocer la frecuencia y las caracteristicas de las hospitalizaciones breves en el Servicio de Pediatria de la Asociacion Espanola. Se trata de un trabajo descriptivo, retrospectivo en el que se revisaron las hospitalizaciones breves (<24 horas) de menores de 15 anos procedentes del Servicio de Emergencia entre el 1o de setiembre de 2013 y el 31 de agosto de 2014. Se analizaron: edad, diagnostico, examenes, interconsultas y tratamiento. De los 1.832 hospitalizados, 34% tuvieron estadia breve, con una media de 13 horas. Los diagnosticos mas frecuentes fueron: traumatismo de craneo, crisis broncoobstructiva con insuficiencia respiratoria, gastroenteritis, dolor abdominal, convulsiones. La mayoria de las hospitalizaciones breves son debidas a patologias agudas que requieren observacion y/o aplicacion de tratamientos supervisados. La organizacion de un area de observacion y la aplicacion de tratamientos protocolizados podria contribuir a mejorar la eficiencia asistencial. Concluimos que una proporcion significativa de las hospitalizaciones breves en este servicio de pediatria son motivadas por patologias agudas que pueden resolverse en el Servicio de Emergencia con observacion y/o aplicacion de tratamientos supervisados. En este caso, se impone generar un area de observacion con los recursos humanos y tecnicos adecuados para atender estas situaciones y evaluar los resultados de su funcionamiento.
Long Live TIME: Improving Lifetime and Security for NVM-Based Training-in-Memory Systems

Nonvolatile memory (NVM)-based training-in-memory (TIME) systems have emerged that can process the neural network (NN) training in an energy-efficient manner. However, the endurance of NVM cells is disappointing, rendering concerns about the lifetime of TIME systems, because the weights of NN models always need to be updated for thousands to millions of times during training. Gradient sparsification (GS) can alleviate this problem by preserving only a small portion of the gradients to update the weights. However, conventional GS will introduce nonuniform writes on different cells across the whole NVM crossbars, which significantly reduces the excepted available lifetime. Moreover, an adversary can easily launch malicious training tasks to exactly wear-out the target cells and fast break down the system. In this article, we propose an efficient and effective framework, referred as SGS-ARS, to improve the lifetime and security of TIME systems. The framework mainly contains a structured GS (SGS) scheme for reducing the write frequency, and an aging-aware row swapping (ARS) scheme to make the writes uniform. Meanwhile, we show that the back-propagation mechanism allows the attacker to localize and update fixed memory locations and wear them out. Therefore, we introduce Random-ARS and Refresh techniques to thwart adversarial training attacks, preventing the systems from being fast broken in an extremely short time. Our experiments show that when TIME is programmed to train ResNet-50 on ImageNet dataset, $356\times $ lifetime extension can be achieved without sacrificing the accuracy much or incurring much hardware overhead. Under the adversarial environment, the available lifetime of TIME systems can still be improved by $84\times $ .
Elevated Average Duration of Unemployment Signals Improved Labor Market

Long-term unemployment was one of the biggest problems during the Great Recession. Nearly half of all unemployed persons were out of work for six months or more (BLS, 2018, 2). This stood in sharp contrast to the experience in previous recessions, when unemployment stints beyond a half year were much less common. Since the Great Recession, the average duration of unemployment has gradually diminished along with the unemployment rate, but it has nevertheless remained relatively long. In fact, the average duration is still longer than every prior post-WWII recession. In the past, a long average duration of unemployment indicated structural impediments in the labor market, such as skills mismatches (Wiczer, 2015). Therefore, the current long duration is naturally seen as a sign of continued weakness (St. Louis Fed, 18, inter alia). In contrast, this paper posits that the elevated duration of unemployment actually indicates that the labor market is functioning unusually well. The long duration of unemployment is the result of very short job searches for newly unemployed workers, and is actually unrelated to long-term unemployment. Consequently, policies designed to solve this “problem” may be unnecessary and misguided.
Physical-biological interactions underlying the phylogeographic patterns of coral-dependent fishes around the Arabian Peninsula

Aim To test the hypothesis that phylogeographic pattern of coral-dependent fish species inhabiting the Arabian Peninsula may be driven by a combination of ocean circulation, larval behavior and seascape features. Location The present study focuses on three such putative oceanographic barriers around the Arabian Peninsula: the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Strait of Hormuz and the upwelling off Oman. Tax Multitaxa. Methods A biophysical modeling system that relies on stochastic Lagrangian framework and Individual-Based Model was used to simulate larval dispersal through the three putative barriers, by tracking three-dimensional movements of virtual particles in ocean circulation scenarios. We explored the range of dispersal capabilities across reef fish species by creating 72 hypothetical strategies, each representing a unique combination of five biological traits: pelagic larval duration, spawning periodicity, mortality rate, reproductive output and vertical migration. Result Our results showed that the strength of the barriers was highly variable as a function of all biological traits (except reproductive output) and indicated high asymmetry of connectivity, and hence gene flow, between adjacent areas. In addition, direction and distance travelled by the virtual larvae varied according to both the geographic position of releasing site and biannual monsoonal winds. On average, larvae released during the summer exhibited a higher potential for dispersal than larvae released in wintertime. Main conclusions Our biophysical models complement the few existing empirical research on population genetics, and the predictions presented here serve as testable hypotheses for future phylogeographic studies around the Arabian Peninsula.