Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic diversity of different generations of the Dalian population of Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum through selective breeding

The present study examined the genetic structure and variation among different generations of Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum obtained through selective breeding by using 12 microsatellite markers.Four consecutive generations(F1,F2,F3,and F4) were selected with 10% selection intensity from a wild population from Shihe,Dalian(Liaoning Province,China). Thirty six individuals were sampled from each generation.Among the 12 microsatellite loci,121 alleles were detected.The number of alleles on each locus varied from 2 to 6 and the allele size ranged from 101 to 273 bp.Each generation had average effective alleles of 3.75-4.58 and average observed heterozygosity of 0.3391-0.3860. Based on P values of genotypes,all four generations deviated from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium with varying degrees.Of the 48 generation × locus combinations(4 generations × 12 loci),27 of which were not in an equilibrium state.Except the locus Asari24,all polymorphic loci had positive inbreeding coefficients(Fis),indicating that high degree of inbreeding existed in all four generations.The inter-generation fixation indices(Fst) varied from 0.0338 to 0.2136 and there was significant genetic differentiation among the 12 polymorphic loci.The F-statistics showed that among all generations two loci had weak genetic differentiation,eight loci had moderate,and the remaining two loci had high genetic differentiation.Pairwise Fst values ranged from 0.05 to 0.15,which also indicated that the clam had moderate genetic differentiation among the generations.Based on the Fis values,two out of four generations exhibited heterozygote excess,but all the generations in sequence showed some degree of heterozygote deficiency.The Nei′s genetic similarity decreased(0.8203→0.8107→0.8031) and genetic distance increased(0.1918→0.2099→0.2129) from one generation to the next through selective breeding.The genetic similarity coefficients among the different generations ranged from 0.7873 to 0.8685,and genetic distance varied from 0.141 to 0.2391. These results demonstrated that there was moderate genetic differentiation among the four generations.In the present study,overall average polymorphism information content(PIC) of 0.5055 was observed,indicating that there is great potential for future selections of Manila clam through selective breeding.
Thermal and impact induced stress failure in painted TPO : the role of surface morphology

With the introduction of new plastic substrates such as thermoplastic olefins, there is a need to establish a reliable baseline knowledge on stone impact response characteristics under a variety of impact conditions, coating types, coating application conditions, substrate processing, and surface pretreatment conditions. Dynamic mechanical properties of engineering plastics and polymeric coatings are strong functions of the temperature and strain rate which affect impact response. In injection molded plastics, morphology, crystallinity, composition, and in-plane stresses at the surface can significantly differ from those observed in the bulk. In injection molded TPO layered surfaces, structures exist which consist of varying crystallinities of cohesively weak polypropylene and rubber. Based on the morphological complexity of the TPO substrate, stone impact response of a painted TPO surface is a complex phenomenon. This work is to present an approach, via a numerical simulation based on a physical model developed in our laboratories, to predict the locus of failure within TPO due to stone impact
Biopsychosocial Correlates of Adjustment to Cancer during Chemotherapy: The Key Role of Health-Related Quality of Life

Background Patients adjust to cancer in a continuous process that follows the course of the disease. Previous research has considered several illness-related variables and demographics, quality of life, personality, and social factors as predictors of adjustment to cancer, which can be maladaptive (e.g., helplessness-hopelessness and anxious preoccupation) or adaptive (e.g., fighting spirit). Aims Assuming a biopsychosocial view, we test an empirical model in which disease stage, patient's age, and gender are viewed as the distal antecedents of positive and negative adjustment to cancer for chemotherapy patients. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has a key role, interposing between the distal antecedents and adaptational outcomes. Social support and positive thinking are also included in the model as related to adjustment. Methods One-hundred-sixty-two consecutive cancer patients receiving adjuvant or standard chemotherapy participated in the study. Patients completed the Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer, the Brief-COPE, the Social Provision Scale, and the SF-12 Health Survey. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied for model building and hypotheses testing. Results We found a negative association between advanced stage and physical functioning, a strong positive link between physical functioning and mental health, and significant relations between mental health and helpless-hopelessness, anxious preoccupation, and cognitive avoidance. Social support and positive thinking were related to fighting spirit and fatalism. Cancer stage and female gender were indirectly associated with adaptational outcomes through HRQoL. The patient's age had no significant relationships in the model. Discussion HRQoL (both physical and mental) is a key factor for preventing maladjustment in chemotherapy patients. Social support and positive thinking coping style fosters fighting spirit and fatalism on health outcomes. Two potential lines of action seem promising: preventing maladaptive and promoting adaptive adjustments working on patient's mental health individually and involving significant others in supportive care, respectively.
Regulation of protein synthesis by α1-adrenergic receptor subtypes in cultured rabbit aortic vascular smooth muscle cells

To investigate the role of the sympathetic nervous system in maintenance and remodeling of vascular smooth muscle, we have examined regulation of protein synthesis by alpha 1-adrenergic receptors (alpha 1-AR) in cultured rabbit aortic vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC). Stimulation of postconfluent cultures (passages 2-6) in serum-free growth medium with the alpha-AR agonist phenylephrine (PE, 30 microM) increases protein synthesis, measured as [3H]leucine incorporation into protein (146 +/- 5%, p < or = 0.001) and total protein content (117 +/- 2%, p < or = 0.001). PE treatment does not affect cellular proliferation or [3H]thymidine incorporation into DNA. PE-stimulated protein synthesis is evident within 24 h, sustained over 96 h, concentration-dependent, and saturable. PE-elicited responses are completely inhibited by the alpha 1-AR antagonist prazosin but not by the alpha 2-AR antagonist yohimbine or the beta-AR antagonists propranolol and atenolol; the beta-AR agonist isoproterenol is ineffective. Competition with [3H]prazosin occupancy of alpha 1-AR and agonist-elicited [3H]leucine incorporation by subtype-selective receptor antagonists (WB4101 and 5-methylurapidil, alpha 1A; chloroethylclonidine, alpha 1B) demonstrates that these cells express a majority of alpha 1B-AR (75%) relative to alpha 1A-AR (25%), which elicit protein metabolism in proportion to their relative abundances. These results indicate that alpha 1B-AR predominate in coupling to metabolic responses, in contrast to previous reports that contractile responses in this tissue are preferentially mediated by alpha 1A-AR.
Late Triassic and Early Jurassic radiolarians from Timor, eastern Indonesia

Rich fossil assemblages are used in a biostratigraphic and taxonomic study of the radiolarians occurring in the Aitutu and Wai Luli Formations of West Timor, Indonesia. The emphasis of this study is upon the abundant and diverse Late Triassic age radiolarians recovered from the River Meto sections of central West Timor and their comparison with other taxa found in Tethyan areas. The lower Mesozoic sediments of Timor form part of a displaced Gondwanan terrane and the Upper Triassic (Camian, Norian and Rhaetian) taxa which are present in the Aitutu Formation compare closely with radiolarians reported from North America, Europe, Japan, China and the Phihppines. Early Jurassic (Sinemurian, Pliensbachian and Toarcian) assemblages were also encountered, recorded and compared to those found in other regions. Sequences of co-occurringmicrofossils (including conodonts, foraminifera, ostracods and calcareous nannofossils) offer a control in confirming the age of the radiolarian assemblages encountered during this study. One new genus (Pseudolivarella) and fifteen new Upper Triassic species {Capnuchosphaera kapanesis, C. metoensis, C. timorensis, Deflandrecyrtium rhaetica, D. kozuri, Kahlerosphaera petalouda, Orbiculiforma kyklica, Palaeosatumalis ovalis, Paronaella leebyi, Pentactinocarpus longispinosis, Pseudoheliodiscus carteri, Stauracanthocircus tozeri, Squinabolellal maxima, Pseudolivarella barkhami) are described and their biostratigraphic significance discussed. Informally, three assemblages and two subassemblages are recognised in the radiolarian faunas from Timor and these are as follows: 1) Capnodoce-Capnuchosphaera Assemblage (upper Camian to lower Norian). 2) Palaeosatumalis Assemblage (middle Norian). 3) Kozurastrum-Citraduma Assemblage (? upper Norian-Rhaetian) with two subassemblages. 3a) Deflandrecyrtium-Livarella Subassemblage (upper Norian) = Betraccium deweveri Zone 3b) IParahsuum sp. A-Pseudolivarella n. gen. Subassemblage (? upper NorianRhaetian). The associations of taxa are defined using the abundant and highly diverse radiolarians from samples provided by Dr. S. T. Barkham. These were then tested on the less
Experimental and Observational Studies of Patch Choice at Different Scales by the Crab Spider Misumena Vatia

We studied patch choice of adult female crab spiders (Misumena vatia) on common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) at three different scales: among umbels (inflorescences), among stems, and among clones. Spiders occupied the umbel on a stem with the most insect prey (and most nectar- producing flowers) (=high quality) more often than predicted by chance and captured most of their prey there. However, even if simple patch choices (umbels) of greatly varying quality were provided, 30% of the spiders did not select high-quality umbels within a day, although choices required move- ments of only several centimetres. The distribution of spiders on these umbels most closely resembled that predicted if spiders responded to the number of times insect prey visited an umbel. Many spiders moved to higher quality stems, upon which most prey were caught, as the last flowers on their own stems senesced. Significantly more spiders remained on high-quality stems than did those on stems with only senesced umbels; however, 25% of the spiders placed on high-quality stems nevertheless moved. Many spiders that moved did not immediately occupy stems of higher quality than the ones they had just left, but by continuing to move, their probability of eventually occupying a high-quality stem markedly increased. Thirty-five percent of the spiders on stems with only senesced umbels did not move within a day. Clones of milkweed were several metres apart, and there was no evidence that spiders moved between them during their last instar. We argue that stochastic factors (unpredictable visits to flowers by prey) may account for the nonuniform response in the simple umbel choice experiments. They may also account for part, but not all, of the variance in the stem choice experiments.
Influence of Casting Temperature on the Near-Surface Structure and Wettability of Cast Silk Fibroin Films

The near-surface structure and the wettability of silk fibroin films cast from aqueous solutions on hydrophobic polystyrene substrates at various temperatures is investigated by Fourier transform infrared attenuated total reflection spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR) and measurement of contact angle. The FTIR data reveal that the near-surface region of the films is enriched in random coil conformations of the protein at the expense of a reduced fraction of α-helix and β-sheet conformations. The relative random coil/β-sheet content shows a marked dependence on the casting temperature, displaying a minimum at 50 °C. The minimum occurs concurrently with a maximum in the wettability of film surfaces by polar liquids. In the lower wettability region, the film surfaces of this hydrophilic protein are hydrophobic, whereas in the enhanced wettability range they are slightly hydrophilic. The experimental data indicate that during formation of fibron films, α-helix and β-sheet structures are rejected by the interface because .
Two New Phenolic Glycosides from Viburnum cylindricum (Caprifoliaceae)

Viburnum cylindricum has been used in folk medicine in Yunnan.Two new phenolic glycosides,1-phloroglucinyl-(6-methybutyryl)-β-D-glucopyranoside named cylindrin A (1),and 1-[4-3-hydroxyl-propyl)]-pyrocatechol-(6-methybutyryl)-β-D-glucopyranoside named cylindrin B (2),along with seven known phenolic glycosides tachioside(3),syingic acid-4-β-D-glucopyran oside(4),1-β-D-glucopyranosyloxy-3-methoxy-5-hydroxybenzene(5),4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenol-1-O-β-D-glucoside(6),4-hydroxy-2,6-dimethoxyphenol-1-O-β-D-glucoside(7),phlorogluc inol-1-O-β-D-glucoside(8),1-β-D-glucosyloxy-2-(3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenyl) propane-1,3-diol(9) have been isolated from the EtOAc extracts of its aerial parts.Their structures were elucidated by means of spectroscopic method.Compounds 3-9 were isolated from this plant for the first time.
Effectiveness of Lumbricidae Extracting with an Environmentally Friendly Method

Lumbricidae, as representatives of edaphone, are used in ecological research. Over the years, various attempts to improve the ways of earthworm extraction have been made. One of the pro-environmental methods for extracting these animals from the soil is the method involving the application of electric current (octet). The aim of the study was to compare the efficiency of the earthworm extraction using the mixed method (manual segregation along with the use of 0.5% formalin solution) with the method applying the electroshocking. The species composition of earthworms extracted using both methods was the same (seven species of earthworms belonging to three ecomorphological groups were found). A lower number and biomass of earthworms were found in the permanent grassland and arable land with the help of octet than using the mixed method. Further research is needed to improve the existing methods for Lumbricidae extraction and to implement new ones that would be safe for the edaphon representatives.
Time Series Classiﬁcation using Compressed Recurrence Plots

In recent years recurrence plots have become a widely accepted tool for identifying and visualizing structural patterns in time series. It has been shown that the structural patterns found in recurrence plots can be used to determine the similarity between two time series, which is necessary for classiﬁcation. For instance, it has been proposed to employ video compression algorithms for measuring the similarity be-tween two recurrence plots, which visualize the structural patterns that were extracted from the time series under study. In this work we assess to what extend the choice of video compression algorithm inﬂuences the similarity measurements and classiﬁcation performance for recurrence plots or time series respectively. Furthermore, we introduce a novel time series distance measure based on the compression of cross recurrence plots. Our evaluation shows that more advanced compression algorithm do not necessarily result in higher classiﬁcation accuracy, but lead to superior results for relatively long time series.
CONSISTENT ACCESS OF INTERNET IN VEHICULAR NETWORKS

---------------------------------------------------------------------***--------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract - Usage of an internet in moving vehicles has been rapidly growing. The overburdening issue of vehicular networks is increasing due to mobile data eruption. SWIM is a new technology which has taken massive attention in the recent years. Due to fast topological change and frequent interruption makes it difficult to design an effective routing protocol to route the data among vehicles, called V2V or vehicle to vehicle communication and vehicle to road side infrastructure, called V2I. SWIM is highly potential in research areas. Thus Wi-Fi networks are considered as a promising technology to discharge vehicular networks. There are several problems in vehicular environment in providing the continuous internet access. Vehicular networks provide continuous internet connection, but with relatively expensive cost. The groups of APs are deployed to communicate with a client called AP range, and the transmission succeeds if any AP in the group completes the delivery with the client. Besides, the short-term network destruction problem and the broadcast storm problem they are further considered in designing routing protocols in SWIM. This is caused by fast variable topological impact on the performance of data transmissions. Hence we propose this SWIM protocol to minimize the delay in packet transmission and to increase the throughput in vehicular communication.
CHaRMS CENTRE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH AT THE MANAGEMENT SCHOOL WORKING PAPER SERIES https://ideas.repec.org/s/qub/CHaRMS.html MIXED BINARY-CONTINUOUS COPULA REGRESSION MODELS WITH APPLICATION TO ADVERSE BIRTH OUTCOMES

Bivariate copula regression allows for the flexible combination of two arbitrary, continuous marginal distributions with regression effects being placed on potentially all parameters of the resulting bivariate joint response distribution. Motivated by the risk factors for adverse birth outcomes, many of which are dichotomous, we consider mixed binary-continuous responses that extend the bivariate continuous framework to the situation where one response variable is discrete (more precisely binary) while the other response remains continuous. Utilizing the latent continuous representation of binary regression models, we implement a penalized likelihood based approach for the resulting class of copula regression models and employ it in the context of modelling gestational age and the presence/absence of low birth weight. The analysis demonstrates the advantage of the flexible specification of regression impacts including nonlinear effects of continuous covariates and spatial effects. Our results imply that racial and spatial inequalities in the risk factors for infant mortality are even greater than previously suggested. JEL Classification: I14, C30, I10
Increased reproductive success with age in the California gull: due to increased effort or improvement of skill?

Pugesek (1981) recently claimed to demonstrate an increase in reproductive effort with age in the California gull Larus californicus. On the contrary, neither theory nor his own data support Pugesek's claim. Older parents invest no more time in (1) foraging for the young and (2) guarding the nest than do younger parents, but the former are (a) more effective at providing food for the young and (b) more efficient at alternating and coordinating guarding and feeding duties. The increase in territorial defense with age is likely due to older parents having more mature young to defend. Development of parental skills as a result of experience best explains the observed increase in reproductive success with age.
Northern British Columbia Community-Based Research Needs

Very little research has examined the unique planning and development needs of northern British Columbia communities and rural regions. This situation is beginning to change with the opening of the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) in 1994. Faculty members at UNBC and other researchers are now implementing research strategies which are providing knowledge to more comprehensively understand opportunities and problems facing these northen municipalities and rural regions. This paper provides an inventory of research opportunities identified by community leaders in northern British Columbia which can direct community-based research in the future.
Committed to Create Value for Researchers Subtrochanteric Fracture after Cannulated Screw Fixation of Femoral Neck Fractures: Biomechanical Analysis and Case Series

Objectives: To determine whether a condensed screw construct or a dispersed screw construct is more likely to sustain a subtrochanteric fracture after cannulated screw fixation for femoral neck fractures, and to report the characteristics of the screw constructs in our patient population that sustained a subtrochanteric fracture. Methods: We performed a biomechanical analysis of two screw constructs and a consecutive case series of patients treated with cannulated screw fixation for femoral neck fractures sustaining subtrochanteric fracture. The biomechanical study consisted of two groups of biocomposite femora: (1) Condensed screw group (CS) (n=7); (2) Dispersed screw group (DS) (n=7). Axial loading was applied to the biomechanical group until fracture, and a load deformation curve was used to quantify the mechanical behavior by measuring the load (kN) at failure, displacement (mm) at failure, and initial construct stiffness (kN/mm). The case series involved a retrospective chart review of patients treated with cannulated screw fixation who sustained a subtrochanteric fracture (n=7). Radiographs were analyzed for trends in failure during chart review. Results: There was a trend towards increased load to failure in the DS group compared with the CS group. We did not observe a statistical difference (p = 0.1023) in load to failure, but we did observe increased stiffness in the DS group (p = 0.0346). Post-hoc non-inferiority analysis demonstrated that the DS were not inferior to CS group. We found a 3.9% incidence of periimplant fracture in our patient population who underwent cannulated screw fixation. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that maximally dispersing screw placement within the femoral neck, may have higher load to failure than more condense screws. The authors of this study advocate maximizing spacing of the screws within the femoral neck while letting the anatomy of the femoral neck dictate the position of the distal screw relative to the lesser
Rotor flux oriented control on the rotor side of the induction motor

In heavy duty drives, in the range of hundreds kW, wound rotor induction motors are widely used. It is the case of cement and minerals industries. Major users make use of tens of such drives, summing hundreds of MW. Due to the large amount of losses which occur at low speeds, the users use the facility given by the wound rotor only for starting, despite the technical capabilities to easily operate at variable speed. Even so, given the range of power, the losses specific to the additional rotor resistors are quite important. As will be shown, these additional looses can arrive to one fifth of the active energy consumed during only the starting process. The paper briefly discusses the existing technologies involved in the variable speed drives based on wound rotor induction machines and proposes a technique for starting which avoids the use of additional rotor resistors and consequently it eliminates the corresponding losses. The technique implies the control on the rotor side of the motor, the stator being directly connected to the grid. This is an important aspect, as generally, in certain applications, the stator rated voltage is quite high (typical 6 kV). The simulations confirm the viability of the technique.