Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is Floral Specialization an Evolutionary Dead-End? Pollination System Transitions in Ruellia (Acanthaceae)

Abstract “…the highly developed, or specialized types of one geologic period have not been the parents of the types of succeeding periods, but …the descent has been derived from the less specialized of preceding ages…” —Edward D. Cope (1896), pp. 173–174 Pollination systems frequently reflect adaptations to particular groups of pollinators. Such systems are indicative of evolutionary specialization and have been important in angiosperm diversification. We studied the evolution of pollination systems in the large genus Ruellia. Phylogenetic analyses, morphological ordinations, ancestral state reconstructions, and a character mapping simulation were conducted to reveal key patterns in the direction and lability of floral characters associated with pollination. We found significant floral morphological differences among species that were generally associated with different groups of floral visitors. Floral evolution has been highly labile and also directional. Some specialized systems such as hawkmoth or bat pollination are likely evolutionary dead-ends. In contrast, specialized pollination by hummingbirds is clearly not a dead-end. We found evidence for multiple reverse transitions from presumed ancestral hummingbird pollination to more derived bee or insect pollination. These repeated origins of insect pollination from hummingbird-pollinated ancestors have not evolved without historical baggage. Flowers of insect-pollinated species derived from hummingbird-pollinated ancestors are morphologically more similar to hummingbird flowers than they are to other more distantly related insect-pollinated flowers. Finally, some pollinator switches were concomitant with changes in floral morphology that are associated with those pollinators. These observations are consistent with the hypothesis that some transitions have been adaptive in the evolution of Ruellia.
A Prospective Randomized Study of Abdominal Aortic Surgery without Postoperative Nasogastric Decompression

Nasogastric decompression following abdominal aortic aneurysmectomy or bypass, for 3–4 days, is a routine part of postoperative care in many centers. A prospective randomized study of 80 patients undergoing abdominal aortic surgery was performed in order to determine the necessity of prolonged nasogastric decompression. Patients were divided evenly between removal of the nasogastric tube upon tracheal extubation and retention of the tube until the passage of flatus. Preoperative risk factors, aortic cross-clamp time, estimated blood loss, length of procedure, length of intensive care unit stay, numbers of days with nasogastric tube, number of days until clear liquid and regular diets commenced, and the length of hospital stay were recorded for all patients. There were no significant differences in any of the measured variables between the two groups. The length of hospital stay was similar in both groups and three patients in each group required a nasogastric tube or reinsertion of one. In conclusion, the routine postoperative use of nasogastric tubes for abdominal aortic procedures is unnecessary.
The genetics of childhood cataract

Human congenital cataract has a diverse aetiology. In the proportion of cases where the cause is genetic, the disease shows wide phenotypic and genetic heterogeneity. Over the past few years, much research has been devoted to mapping the genes that underlie the disorder. This has been helped by the extensive array of naturally occurring and genetically engineered mouse cataract models and the abundance of human candidate genes. Most progress to date has been in the identification of genetic mutations causing autosomal dominant congenital cataract where eight genes have been implicated in cataractogenesis. Overall there is good correlation between the genetic mutations so far identified and the resulting lens phenotype but it is clear that mutations at more that one locus may give rise to similar forms of cataract. The identification of genes causing inherited forms of cataract will improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying cataractogenesis in childhood and provide further insights into normal lens development and physiology. Perhaps more importantly, it is likely that some of the genes causing early onset cataract will be implicated in age related cataract which remains the commonest cause of blindness in the world.
LAWS OF SYMBOLIC MEDIATION IN THE DYNAMICS OF SELF AND PERSONALITY *

The concept of the symbol shows the way to overcome RenC Descartes’ partition of man into the self as res cogitans and the body as yes extensa. I n the symbol psychological meaning and physical sign appear as a unit. We find the personality of a human being in the meaning of his words and actions, habits and gestures, and we experience this meaning as being identical with its bodily bearer, resembling the unity of symbol and meaning. Klages’ in his studies of expression, Spranger,2 in his Verstehende Psychologie of personality apply this concept of the symbol. It is unnecessary to probe the justification of these authors for their application of it because for our point of view a different use is central. Symbols are not only a model for the unity of body and mind of people as they present themselves to us outwardly in their behavior and appearance. Symbols also provide a method of understanding this unity from within as it is reflected in the constitution of personality. This paper is based on the hypothesis that all emergence of psyche or experience in man and animal is associated with sign systems in the function of a symbolic medium just as human thought is linked with language. Apart from its task in the communication with other people, language, in inner virtual speech, acts as the medium for comprehending and reflecting experience in thought. Only with the help of a symbolic sign system in the form of language is man able to rise above the immediacy of his emotions and perceptions toward the supremacy of reason and the experience of an objective world of facts. The central nervous system is a communication system that transforms the excitations of the sense organs and the signals received through hormones and other chemical substances into the code of its own excitations. Through these coded excitations it steers the actions and reactions of the organism. The central nervous system also enables the organism to decode the excitations generated in these vital communication processes. Through the latter process the organism discloses to itself in living experience, that is, in emotions and perceptions, the significance of its own situation and the character of its environment. Just as the decoding of words yields meaning, thc decoding of excitations within the central nervous system yields perceptions, emotions, and imagery: that is, the phenomena of mental life. Language ranks highest in the hierarchy of the internal sign systems, which are superimposed in layers Upon each other in the course of evolution. The lowest level of communication processes corresponds to those of the somatic periphery, of the sense organs, peripheral nerves, and muscles, and is directly related to palpable reality. On the level of the vertebrates the neural canal is
The Visual Hull Concept for Silhouette-Based Image Understanding

Many algorithms for both identifying and reconstructing a 3-D object are based on the 2-D silhouettes of the object. In general, identifying a nonconvex object using a silhouette-based approach implies neglecting some features of its surface as identification clues. The same features cannot be reconstructed by volume intersection techniques using multiple silhouettes of the object. This paper addresses the problem of finding which parts of a nonconvex object are relevant for silhouette-based image understanding. For this purpose, the geometric concept of visual hull of a 3-D object is introduced. This is the closest approximation of object S that can be obtained with the volume intersection approach; it is the maximal object silhouette-equivalent to S, i.e., which can be substituted for S without affecting any silhouette. Only the parts of the surface of S that also lie on the surface of the visual hull can be reconstructed or identified using silhouette-based algorithms. The visual hull depends not only on the object but also on the region allowed to the viewpoint. Two main viewing regions result in the external and internal visual hull. In the former case the viewing region is related to the convex hull of S, in the latter it is bounded by S. The internal visual hull also admits an interpretation not related to silhouettes. Algorithms for computing visual hulls are presented and their complexity analyzed. In general, the visual hull of a 3-D planar face object turns out to be bounded by planar and curved patches. >
Response of urinary purine derivatives excretion to different levels of ruminal glucose infusion in heifers

This study investigated the response of urinary purine derivatives (PD) excretion to increasing levels of intraruminal glucose infusion to evaluate how well this indicator reflects induced changes in microbial crude protein flow. Four rumen-cannulated heifers (482 ± 25 kg body weight) were fed at maintenance energy level with a basal diet (on fresh matter basis) of 4 kg/d hay, 1.5 kg/d concentrate and 60 g/d minerals in two equal meals. The trial comprised a control period (Control I) without glucose infusion followed by four consecutive periods in which all animals received 125 g, 250 g, 500 g or 1000 g/d of glucose, respectively. For this, daily dosages of glucose and urea (90 g/d during all periods) were divided into three portions that were dissolved in water and directly administered into the rumen during morning and afternoon feedings and once during noon. After the highest glucose dosage, a second control period was carried out (Control II). Urinary PD excretion increased with glucose infusion of 125 g/d (71.4 mmol/d) and 1000 g/d (74.2 mmol/d) over the level at Control I (53.9 mmol/d (standard error of the mean (SEM) 3.4; p = 0.012). After withdrawing glucose infusion, PD excretion (79.0 mmol/d) did not return to Control I level (p = 0.001). In contrast, faecal nitrogen (N) excretions linearly increased with incremental glucose infusion (p < 0.001) from 33.9 g/d at Control I to 39.7 g/d (SEM 0.5) at 1000 g/d of glucose and were similar in Control I and II (p = 0.086). The contradicting responses in the excretions of faecal N and urinary PD to increasing glucose infusions highlight the limited accuracy of the PD excretion as a non-invasive indicator when incremental dosages of rapidly fermentable carbohydrates are supplied.
Proceso de Bolonia (VI): aprendiendo comunicación para la salud en el Grado de Medicina

La comunicacion forma parte de la actividad clinica y en ocasiones determina el exito o fracaso del proceso asistencial. Sin embargo, no ha sido reconocida en los planes de estudio del Estado espanol hasta muy recientemente, sobre todo con el impulso del llamado "Plan Bolonia". En el ano 2009 se aprobo en la Facultad de Medicina de la Universitat de Barcelona un nuevo plan docente que proponia incorporar la ensenanza de la comunicacion en las materias clinicas y preclinicas, contabilizando entre 3 y 6 creditos europeos (ECTS), como competencia transversal. El presente articulo aborda el diseno de esta competencia, los pros y contras, como se inserta en diferentes asignaturas y como puede evaluarse.
Multidimensional optimum signal constellation design for few-mode fiber based high-speed optical transport

In this paper, we propose an algorithm to determine the N-dimensional optimum signal constellation design (ND-OSCD), in MMSE sense, for channel capacity achieving source distribution. The simulation results indicate that the proposed LDPC-coded polarization-division-multiplexed (PDM) ND-OSCD significantly outperforms conventional PDM-QAM (by 4.35 dB for 64-ary 3D constellation at BER of 10-7). In addition, the ND-OSCD outperforms sphere packing constellations (by 0.36 dB for 8-ary 3D constellation at BER of 10-7).
2500 Years of European Climate Variability and Human Susceptibility

Variability of central European temperature and precipitation shows correlations with some major historical changes. Climate variations influenced the agricultural productivity, health risk, and conflict level of preindustrial societies. Discrimination between environmental and anthropogenic impacts on past civilizations, however, remains difficult because of the paucity of high-resolution paleoclimatic evidence. We present tree ring–based reconstructions of central European summer precipitation and temperature variability over the past 2500 years. Recent warming is unprecedented, but modern hydroclimatic variations may have at times been exceeded in magnitude and duration. Wet and warm summers occurred during periods of Roman and medieval prosperity. Increased climate variability from ~250 to 600 C.E. coincided with the demise of the western Roman Empire and the turmoil of the Migration Period. Such historical data may provide a basis for counteracting the recent political and fiscal reluctance to mitigate projected climate change.
Transport of TMV Movement Protein Particles Associated with the Targeting of RNA to Plasmodesmata

The cell‐to‐cell movement of Tobacco mosaic virus through plasmodesmata (PD) requires virus‐encoded movement protein (MP). The MP targets PD through the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)/actin network, whereas the intercellular movement of the viral RNA genome has been correlated with the association of the MP with mobile, microtubule‐proximal particles in cells at the leading front of infection as well as the accumulation of the protein on the microtubule network during later infection stages. To understand how the associations of MP with ER and microtubules are functionally connected, we applied multiple marker three‐dimensional confocal and time‐lapse video microscopies to Nicotiana benthamiana cells expressing fluorescent MP, fluorescent RNA and fluorescent cellular markers. We report the reconstitution of MP‐dependent RNA transport to PD in a transient assay. We show that transiently expressed MP occurs in association with small particles as observed during infection. The same MP accumulates in PD and mediates the transport of its messenger RNA transcript to the pore. In the cellular cortex, the particles occur at microtubule‐proximal sites and can undergo ER‐associated and latrunculin‐sensitive movements between such sites. These and other observations suggest that the microtubule network performs anchorage and release functions for controlling the assembly and intracellular movement of MP‐containing RNA transport particles in association with the ER.
High-power angled broad-area 1.3-/spl mu/m laser diodes with good beam quality

A new type of high-power laser diodes is fabricated with a broad-area waveguide tilted at 7/spl deg/ from the facet normal. For the current between 0.6 and 1.2 A, it behaves like a superluminescent diode with 40-nm spectral width and 40-mW output power. The far field emits at about 25/spl deg/ away from the facet normal. For the current above 1.2 A, it oscillates with a narrow spectrum. The far field emits along the facet normal with its angle only twice of the diffraction limit. The output power per facet could be 1 W at 12 A.
IS: a web-site for intron statistics

SUMMARY A web server has been established for the statistical evaluation of introns in various taxonomic groups and the comparison of taxonomic groups in terms of intron type, length, base composition, etc. The options include the graphic analysis of splice sites and a probability test for exon-shuffling within the selected group. AVAILABILITY introns.abc. hu, http://www.icgeb. trieste.it/introns
Investigation into the effects of feeding schedule on body condition, aggressiveness, and reproductive failure in group housed sows

A total of 208 sows and 288 gilts (PIC Line C29) were used to determine the influence of feeding frequency (2 versus 6 times per day) in gestation on performance and welfare measurements. The experiment was conducted on a commercial sow farm in northeast Kansas that typically housed gestating sows and gilts in pens. Treatments consisted of feeding similar amounts of feed to each sow or gilt over 2 (07:00 and 15:30) or 6 meals per day (07:00, 07:30, 08:00, 15:30, 16:00, and 16:30 hours). There were 8 sows or 12 gilts in each pen. Gilts and sows were moved to pens after breeding.
Forecast and Follow-up

The investigation reported here is based on three previous publications (Querido, 1954; and Levita, In the first of these it was determined how far somatic illness was accompanied by mental and/or social stress in a random sample of patients of a general hospital. Such stresses were present in a little over 50 per cent. of a sample of 200. An attempt to systematize various forms of stress resulted in the following classification: somatic, psychosomatic, psycho-somatic-social, and parallel problems. In the second investigation an attempt was to determine how the needs of a sample of hospital patients could be met if problems other than those this it was found that 44 per cent. were suffering from tensions and stresses apart from the somatic complaint which had necessitated hospital admission. It was estimated 12 per cent. psychiatric a programme treatment, 15 per cent. psychia- tric treatment after discharge, 27 per cent. needed supporting treatment by the family doctor, 41 per cent. needed after-care or case-work by a social worker, and 5 per cent. needed the care of a priest. These results indicate that many patients admitted to a general hospital may be burdened by stresses which may or may not be interwoven with the somatic but may well impede the chances of complete recovery and so diminish the effect of the labours of the hospital staff.
Anisomycin infused into the hippocampus fails to block "reconsolidation" but impairs extinction: the role of re-exposure duration.

Recent studies have reported new evidence consistent with the hypothesis that reactivating a memory by re-exposure to a training context destabilizes the memory and induces "reconsolidation. " In the present experiments, rats' memory for inhibitory avoidance (IA) training was tested 6 h (Test 1), 2 d (Test 2), and 6 d (Test 3) after training. On Test 1 the rats were either removed from the shock compartment immediately after entry or retained in the shock context for 200 sec, and intrahippocampal infusions of the protein synthesis inhibitor anisomycin (75 microg/side) were administered immediately after the test. Anisomycin infusions administered after Test 1 impaired IA performance on Test 2 in animals given the brief re-exposure, but impaired extinction in animals exposed to the context for 200 sec. Rats with anisomycin-induced retention impairment on Test 2 demonstrated spontaneous recovery of retention performance on Test 3, whereas rats showing extinction on Test 2 showed further extinction on Test 3. The findings indicate that post-retrieval administration of anisomycin impairs subsequent retention performance only in the absence of extinction and that this impairment is temporary.
A Propaganda na Estratégia de Diferenciação Competitiva do Varejo de Eletrodomésticos Brasileiro

A propaganda e reconhecida na literatura da estrategia corporativa como um fenomeno que efetivamente pode proporcionar diferenciacao, que em longo prazo poderia sustentar vantagens competitivas. O presente trabalho procura analisar esse fenomeno num setor caracterizado pela compra comparada, e tambem pelo alto investimento que realiza em propaganda: o varejo de eletrodomesticos brasileiro. Investigou-se a relacao entre lembranca de marca e imagem percebida em relacao ao tempo de atividade da empresa Ricardo Eletro, que possui presenca nacional, em diferentes pracas de atuacao da rede. O estudo caracteriza-se pelo seu carater descritivo: foram aplicados questionarios a 594 pessoas que constituiram a amostra, selecionada por conveniencia, com 277 questionarios respondidos. Apos a analise de dados atraves de estatistica descritiva, os resultados apontaram para a existencia de uma relacao entre lembranca espontânea de marca e o tempo de exposicao da empresa atraves da propaganda. Alem disso, sugerem que as campanhas publicitarias contribuem para a formacao de uma imagem mais uniforme da empresa perante os consumidores, diferenciando-a dos concorrentes.
Orientation and positioning with inertial sensors for walking frame guidance

Mobility for blind or partially blind with walking disability is hard to realize. A walking frame assists in movement, but the orientation and positioning for people with restricted visual ability without external help is nearly impossible. They also have trouble with object recognition to avoid collisions and prevent injuries. Therefore there is the need to assist people with restricted moving and seeing abilities, so that they maintain mobility. The application of the Microsoft Kinect sensor is an effective and low cost method to lead people through the environment with detailed depth information offered by an infrared camera. Additionally, with the help of inertial sensors for navigation, an imaging of the surrounding objects and obstacle recognition is possible. In this paper, orientation and positioning of a walking frame by means of an accelerometer and gyroscope is presented and it is demonstrated how these data supports obstacle recognition with the Kinect. The results and benefits for further usage are presented.
Recent Advances in Offline Signature Identification

In recent years, biometric-based authentication systems have been widely used in many applications which require reliable identification scheme. Among others, handwritten signature is one of the most interesting biometric means, that is being considered with renewed interest. This paper presents some of the most relevant advances in the field of offline signature identification and highlights some directions for further research.
A transitive closure algorithm for test generation

A transitive-closure-based test generation algorithm is presented. A test is obtained by determining signal values that satisfy a Boolean equation derived from the neural network model of the circuit incorporating necessary conditions for fault activation and path sensitization. The algorithm is a sequence of two main steps that are repeatedly executed: transitive closure computation and decision-making. A key feature of the algorithm is that dependences derived from the transitive closure are used to reduce ternary relations to binary relations that in turn dynamically update the transitive closure. The signals are either determined from the transitive closure or are enumerated until the Boolean equation is satisfied. Experimental results on the ISCAS 1985 and the combinational parts of ISCAS 1989 benchmark circuits are presented to demonstrate efficient test generation and redundancy identification. Results on four state-of-the-art production VLSI circuits are also presented. >