Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Persistence of host defence behaviour in the absence of avian brood parasitism

The fate of host defensive behaviour in the absence of selection from brood parasitism is critical to long-term host–parasite coevolution. We investigated whether New World Bohemian waxwings Bombycilla garrulus that are allopatric from brown-headed cowbird Molothrus ater and common cuckoo Cuculus canorus parasitism have retained egg rejection behaviour. We found that egg rejection was expressed by 100 per cent of Bohemian waxwings. Our phylogeny revealed that Bohemian and Japanese waxwings Bombycilla japonica were sister taxa, and this clade was sister to the cedar waxwing Bombycilla cedrorum. In addition, there was support for a split between Old and New World Bohemian waxwings. Our molecular clock estimates suggest that egg rejection may have been retained for 2.8–3.0 Myr since New World Bohemian waxwings inherited it from their common ancestor with the rejecter cedar waxwings. These results support the ‘single trajectory’ model of host–brood parasite coevolution that once hosts evolve defences, they are retained, forcing parasites to become more specialized over time.
Habit-Based Regulation of Essential Variables

A variety of models have been developed to investigate “homeostatic adaptation,” a mechanism inspired by Ashby’s homeostat, where a plastic control medium is reorganized until one or more essential variables are maintained within predefined limits. In these models, “habits” emerge, defined as behavior-generating mechanisms that rely upon their own influence to maintain the conditions necessary for their own persistence. In this paper, we present a recently developed sensorimotor-habit-based controller that is coupled to a simulated two-wheeled robot with a simulated metabolism. The simulation is used to demonstrate how habits can have the same essential variable(s) as the metabolic or “biological” organism that is performing the behavior, and that in certain conditions when this is the case, the emergent habits will tend to stabilize essential variables within viability limits. The model also demonstrates that an explicit pre-specification of (A) which variables should induce plasticity and (B) which values of those variables should induce plasticity is not always necessary for homeostatic adaptation of behavior.
First-order reversal curve of the magnetostructural phase transition in FeTe

Author(s): Frampton, MK; Crocker, J; Gilbert, DA; Curro, N; Liu, K; Schneeloch, JA; Gu, GD; Zieve, RJ | Abstract: © 2017 American Physical Society. We apply the first-order reversal curve (FORC) method, adapted from studies of ferromagnetic materials, to the magnetostructural phase transition of Fe1+yTe. FORC measurements reveal two features in the hysteretic phase transition, even in samples where traditional temperature measurements display only a single transition. For Fe1.13Te, the influence of magnetic field suggests that the main feature is primarily structural while a smaller, slightly higher-temperature transition is magnetic in origin. By contrast, Fe1.03Te has a single transition which shows a uniform response to magnetic field, indicating a stronger coupling of the magnetic and structural phase transitions. We also introduce uniaxial stress, which spreads the distribution width without changing the underlying energy barrier of the transformation. The work shows how FORC can help disentangle the roles of the magnetic and structural phase transitions in FeTe.
Impact of ROS on ageing of two fungal model systems: Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Podospora anserina

To provide a foundation for the development of effective interventions to counteract various age-related diseases in humans, ageing processes have been extensively studied in various model organisms and systems. However, the mechanisms underlying ageing are still not unravelled in detail in any system including rather simple organisms. In this article, we review some of the molecular mechanisms that were found to affect ageing in two fungal models, the unicellular ascomycete Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the filamentous ascomycete Podospora anserina. A selection of issues like retrograde response, genomic instability, caloric restriction, mtDNA reorganisation and apoptosis is presented and discussed with special emphasis on the role reactive oxygen species (ROS) play in these diverse molecular pathways.
High speed DFT's using residue numbers

Four DFT's, namely the radix 2 and 4, Good-Winograd Fourier transform, and general-N Winograd transforms have been architected using the residue number system. The structure of these architectures, in light of the high degree of parallelism allowed by residue arithmetic, are critically compared. Scaling overheads are computed for residue based systems. Overhead factor of 3, 4.5, 5, and 10 were computed for radix 2, radix 4 FFT's, GWFTA, and NWFTA respectively. The effect of these overhead burdens are discussed and analyzed.
SPATIO-TEMPORAL MODELING OF SNOW FLAKE CRYSTALS USING PACKARD'S CELLULAR AUTOMATA

Cellular automata (CA) modelling is one of the recent advances in spatial–temporal modeling techniques in the field of growth dynamics. Spatio-temporal modeling of growth patterns has gained more importance in the recent years especially in the field of crystal growth, urban growth, biological growth etc. It has become an interest for researchers to study the model on spatial and temporal dynamic behavior. This paper aimed at modeling crystal growth using cellular Automata, which have dynamic capabilities to handle spatio-temporal phenomenon for better and efficient growth process. Cellular Automata models are used to simulate the process of crystal growth and to generate various patterns that the crystals create in nature. CA’s do quite easily reproduce the basic feature of the overall behavior that occurs in real world.CA models have been successfully used to simulate different growth behavior of crystals, since cellular Automata and crystals have similar structure.
Background Subtraction with Background Modeling for Visual Surveillance Applications

This work adopts background subtraction to develop automatic extraction of moving objects in video surveillance. Pixels at a specific position of continuous image frames are manipulated by the modified iterative threshold selection technique to determine the background gray-level value. Pixels at all positions employ such an iterative technique to establish the background that is then analyzed and modified by using the relationship of neighboring pixels to avoid inconsistent classification. The original image is subtracted by this background to obtain a difference image. The robust edge-following method processes this difference image to yield the closed-form objects that are then conducted by the morphological operation to obtain complete objects. As compared to the conventional methods, the proposed method is demonstrated to have the best performance of moving object extraction in video sequences.
Relational Dharma: A Modern Paradigm of Transformation-A Liberating Model of Intersubjectivity

Presented are the theoretical and experiential foundations of the author’s interdisciplinary model of intersubjectivity, inspired by a contemporary, trans-sectarian and creative re-envisioning of the Buddhist doctrine of dependent co-arising (paticca samuppada). Relational Dharma seeks to illuminate the nature of co-genesis through engaging awareness within a progression of insight within intersubjective experience in human relationship. The purpose of this model is to support refinement of our understanding of relatedness as a means toward liberation from self and self-other generated suffering and capacitate greater influence upon of ones’ own and other’s higher freedom. The doctrine of dependent co-arising, from classical Buddhist perspectives, and a theoretical overview of its mechanics as a living architecture of interdependence that can be directly experienced across myriad phenomena, is explored. Clinical implications are discussed as they apply to resolving trauma, posttraumatic growth, and growth through adversity, along with a framework determining and guiding expressions of higher human relatedness.
Analysis of fibrinolytic proteins in relation to DNA ploidy in prostate cancer

The tissue concentrations of urokinase‐type plasminogen activator (u‐PA), urokinase‐type plasminogen activator receptor (u‐PAR), plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI‐1) and tissue‐type plasminogen activator (t‐PA) were investigated by an ELISA technique in normal and malignant samples of the prostate from 24 patients undergoing radical prostatectomy for organ‐confined prostate cancer. The median concentration of u‐PA was significantly higher in cancerous than in normal prostate tissue (p = 0.006). No significant increase of u‐PAR, PAI‐1 and t‐PA was found in cancer tissue in comparison with the benign samples (p > 0.05). Assessment of the relationship between fibrinolytic proteins and DNA ploidy revealed an increased u‐PA, u‐PAR and PAI‐1 in diploid prostate cancer as compared with the normal controls. However, in aneuploid cancer u‐PA remained high but u‐PAR and PAI‐1 were decreased. This led to a higher local concentration of u‐PA in aneuploid samples than in normal prostate and in diploid prostate cancer. No alteration of median t‐PA was found in benign prostate or in diploid or aneuploid prostate cancer. The altered expression of u‐PA, u‐PAR and PAI‐1 in diploid and aneuploid prostate cancer suggests a possible role of fibrinolytic proteins in the different biologic behavior of tumors, and may be one explanation for the higher metastatic potential of aneuploid tumors. Int. J. Cancer 78:320–325, 1998© 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Optimal regulation via WSAN with measurement noise

This paper addresses the issue of optimal regulation of a linear time-invariant multi-input multi-output discrete-time system in the framework of wireless sensor and actuator networks. The plant output signal is transmitted through wireless communication channel and then subjected to measurement noise resulting from multisensor data fusion. Result shows that how the communication channel takes effect on the optimal regulation performance. Also, we found that the measurement noise inevitably degrades the achievable regulation performance and the extent of the degradation depends on the way that how the noise interacts with the unstable poles and non-minimum phase zeros which are the intrinsic properties of the plant.
Design and implementation of GPU-based matrix chain multiplication using C++AMP

Matrix Chain Multiplication is one of the optimization problems widely used in graph algorithms, signal processing and network industry. The Matrix Chain multiplication is the process of multiplying number of nxn matrices cumulatively, where n is the size of the matrix. In this paper, the focus of the work is to accelerate the computation time for matrix chain multiplication with the help of high performance C++ Accelerated Massive Parallelism (AMP) code for Graphic Processing Units (GPUs). The proposed work is implemented in C++ AMP and tested with matrix sizes varying from 100 to 1000 for chain multiplication of three and four matrices. The experimental results show that, the speed up achieved through GPU implementation is 97.27% when compared with Sequential implementation of the matrix chain multiplication.
Factors Associated with Potential Drug–Drug Interactions in Patients Attended in Primary Health Care: A Focus on Mental Health

ABSTRACT There were no Brazilian studies regarding potential drug–drug interactions (DDIs) in primary health care (PHC) analysing common mental disorders (CMDs) and psychotropic medication. Objectives: To identify DDI prevalence in that setting; to classify DDI; to verify correlations with demographics, pharmacotherapeutics, psychotropic medication and CMDs. Among 430 patients interviewed 190 had more than two medications prescribed, 58.4% had DDI. Factors associated were age and number of medications. Nine types of severe DDI composed 28% patients' prescriptions, 71.9% involving psychotropic medication. Only the number of types of drugs contributed to the regression model. Results raise important aspects regarding patient safety in PHC units in Brazil are where patients with psychological complaints have to seek for health care firstly.
The engagement of social media technologies by undergraduate informatics students for academic purpose in Malaysia

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the perceptions, acceptance, usage and access to social media by students and academics in higher education in informatics programs in Malaysia. A conceptual model based on Connectivism and communities of practice (CoPs) learning theory was developed and were used as a basis of mapping the research questions to the design frameworks and the research outcomes. A significant outcome of this study will be the development of a design framework for implementing social media as supporting tools for student engagement and teaching and learning of informatics programs in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach – A mixed-method research methodology with a significant survey research component was employed for this research. This methodology focused on collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data to better understand the research problems. For this study, a mixed-method sequential transformative research strategy based on a.
Finite-density Onsager-type theory for the isotropic-nematic transition of hard ellipsoids.

We propose a simple density-functional theory for the isotropic-nematic transition of a system of hard ellipsoids which yields results in fair agreement with the computer simulation studies and which reduces exactly to Onsager's theory in the limit of infinitely dilute systems of infinitely long ellipsoids. When the free energy is expanded with respect to the Maier-Saupe quadrupole order parameter an explicit Landau theory is produced which yields good results for small nonsphericities. The theory also predicts a Lindemann rule for orientational freezing.
Comparative study on the wrist positions during raise maneuver and their effect on hand function in individuals with paraplegia.

OBJECTIVE To determine the appropriate wrist position in individuals with high-level paraplegia during the RAISE (relief of anatomical ischial skin embarrassment) maneuver. METHOD Thirty individuals with high-level paraplegia were randomly selected; 15 individuals performed RAISE maneuver with extended wrist and 15 with neutral wrist. All the subjects who were at least 1 year post spinal cord injury were screened for positive carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms. All the subjects were allowed to participate in a trial of the Jebsen-Taylor Test of Hand Function to familiarize them with the test. Hand function was measured using the Jebsen-Taylor test. RESULTS During the RAISE maneuver, individuals with paraplegia weight bearing on their hands with wrists in the neutral position showed better hand function (P < .001) when compared to those weight bearing with their wrists in extension. CONCLUSION Weight bearing with the wrist in neutral position is advisable for paraplegics to prevent the deterioration in hand function due to carpal tunnel syndrome.
Role of multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 mutational analysis in clinical practice.

OBJECTIVE To review and assess the role of MEN1 mutational analysis in clinical practice. METHODS Articles relevant to MEN1 mutation testing and screening were reviewed. RESULTS Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN 1) is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by the combined occurrence of tumors of the parathyroid glands, pancreatic islet cells, and anterior pituitary gland. MEN 1 is associated with premature mortality attributable primarily to malignant pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors and foregut carcinoids. The MEN1 gene is located on chromosome 11q13, and germline MEN1 mutations are highly penetrant and lead to tumor development in >99% of patients by the age of 45 years. Current consensus guidelines recommend an integrated program of mutational analysis of the MEN1 gene and a combination of biochemical and radiologic screening to detect the early development of tumors and thereby reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with MEN 1. Our results reveal that MEN1 mutational analysis helps to confirm the clinical diagnosis, identify asymptomatic family members who have a MEN1 mutation and require screening from an early age, and identify the 50% of family members who do not have the MEN1 mutation and can therefore have the burden of screening and anxiety regarding potential disease removed. Moreover, MEN1 mutational analysis helps to resolve diagnostic challenges due to phenocopies, which occur in 5% to 10% of families with MEN 1. CONCLUSION MEN1 mutational analysis facilitates clinical management and provides benefits to patients and families with MEN 1.
Harmonic phase MR tagging for direct quantification of lagrangian strain in rat hearts after myocardial infarction

The utility of harmonic phase (HARP) analysis was recently demonstrated in humans and large animals as a technique for rapid and automatic analysis of tagged magnetic resonance images. In the current study, the applicability and accuracy of HARP analysis for automatic strain quantification in small animals were investigated. A validation study was performed on seven postinfarct rats and seven age‐matched controls. A method for direct computation of 2D Lagrangian strain fields from spatial derivatives of HARP images was also developed in this paper. The results of HARP analysis were evaluated by comparison with those of homogeneous strain analysis employing finite element method and manual tag tracking. Both methods were validated with simulated digital images. Compared to conventional homogeneous strain analysis, HARP analysis yielded similar results in the assessment of regional strain patterns in both control and infarct rats. Both methods detected a reduction in maximal stretch and shortening in infarct rats. Our results suggest that HARP analysis can also be applied to quantify alterations in regional myocardial wall motion in small animals. Magn Reson Med 52:1282–1290, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Single-crystalline Ni2Ge/Ge/Ni2Ge nanowire heterostructure transistors

In this study, we report on the formation of a single-crystalline Ni2Ge/Ge/Ni2Ge nanowire heterostructure and its field effect characteristics by controlled reaction between a supercritical fluid–liquid–solid (SFLS) synthesized Ge nanowire and Ni metal contacts. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies reveal a wide temperature range to convert the Ge nanowire to single-crystalline Ni2Ge by a thermal diffusion process. The maximum current density of the fully germanide Ni2Ge nanowires exceeds 3.5 × 107 A cm − 2, and the resistivity is about 88 μΩ cm. The in situ reaction examined by TEM shows atomically sharp interfaces for the Ni2Ge/Ge/Ni2Ge heterostructure. The interface epitaxial relationships are determined to be and . Back-gate field effect transistors (FETs) were also fabricated using this low resistivity Ni2Ge as source/drain contacts. Electrical measurements show a good p-type FET behavior with an on/off ratio over 103 and a one order of magnitude improvement in hole mobility from that of SFLS-synthesized Ge nanowire.
Dienogest in the treatment of endometriosis Nicolò Bizzarri , Valentino Remorgida , Umberto Leone Roberti Maggiore

Introduction: Dienogest (DNG) is an oral progestin, derivative of 19-nortestosterone, that has recently been introduced for the treatment of endometriosis. Areas covered: This review examines the clinical efficacy, safety and tolerability of DNG in the treatment of endometriosis. The material included in the current manuscript was searched and obtained via Medline, Pubmed and EMBASE, from inception until February 2014. The term ‘dienogest’ was associated with the following search terms: ‘endometriosis’, ‘pharmacokinetics’, ‘safety’ and ‘efficacy’. Expert opinion: Several trials demonstrated the clinical efficacy, safety and tolerability of DNG. However the use of DNG is associated with some limitations. So far, no study investigated the potential of contraceptive effect of this treatment and therefore, it should be recommended with other methods of contraception (e.g., barrier methods). A further limitation of the use of DNG as daily therapy in the long term is that the cost of the therapy is higher than other progestins available on the market and combined oral contraceptives. Therefore, future studies should be designed to compare the efficacy and safety of DNG with other progestins.
Stein ’ s Unbiased Risk Estimate Statistical Machine Learning , Spring 2015

1 Stein’s lemma • In a landmark paper, Stein (1981) derived a beautiful and simple lemma about the standard normal distribution. Indeed, Stein knew of this result much earlier and wrote about it in previous papers, but in Stein (1981), the author developed a multivariate extension of this lemma that led to a remarkable result on unbiased risk estimation. (And, an interesting note: the paper Stein (1981) itself was actually written in 1974, and rumor has it Stein wasn’t planning on publishing it, until a colleague convinced him to do so in 1981. ) • We’ll walk through Stein’s univariate and multivariate lemmas on the normal distribution. Following this, we’ll discuss how they apply to unbiased risk estimation. We note that the univariate lemma has a converse, and this has become extremely important in its own right, studied and further developed in probability theory for proving convergence to normality. Stein didn’t write a lot of papers, but he was a pretty influential guy!
Side-chain radical losses from radical cations allows distinction of leucine and isoleucine residues in the isomeric peptides Gly-XXX-Arg.

Sequencing of peptides via low-energy collision-induced dissociation of protonated peptides typically yields b(n) and y(n) sequence ions. The isomeric residues leucine and isoleucine rarely can be distinguished in these experiments since they give b(n) and y(n) sequence ions of the same m/z. Siu's pioneering work on electrospray ionization of copper complexes of peptides (Chu IK, Rodriquez CF, Lau TC, Hopkinson AC, Siu KWM. J. Phys. Chem. B 2000; 104: 3393) provides a way of forming radical cations of peptides in the gas phase. This method was used to generate M(+ small middle dot) ions of the two isomeric peptides Gly-Leu-Arg and Gly-Ile-Arg in order to compare their fragmentation reactions. Both radical cations fragment to give even electron y(2) and y(1) sequence ions as well as side-chain radical losses of CH(3) and CH(3)CH(2) for isoleucine and (CH(3))(2)CH for leucine. In contrast the [M + H](+) and [M + 2H](2+) ions do not allow distinction between the isomeric leucine and isoleucine peptides.
A new technique to measure the thermal resistance of LDMOS transistors

This paper introduces a new dc technique for the extraction of the thermal resistance of LDMOS transistors. The new extraction method has distinctive advantages over existing techniques: 1) it is based on dc measurements of the I-V output curves at different ambient temperatures, thus requiring only very standard and inexpensive equipment, with the exception of a stable and accurate temperature control; 2) it does not need any special layout or test structure, nor any knowledge of the physical structure of the device under test; and 3) it can be applied to both packaged and on-wafer FETs. We applied the new technique to LDMOS transistors with a wide range of gate widths, namely, 2.68-84.42 mm, obtaining well-behaved and consistent results. A comparison of the new method with a standard extraction technique based on short-pulse measurements at different ambient temperatures showed substantial agreement between the two.