Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of body armature on escape behaviour in cordylid lizards

Abstract The possession of armour may affect escape behaviour in two ways. On one hand, by decreasing vulnerability to predators, armour may permit individuals to use habitats and behaviours that are too risky for unarmoured individuals. Alternatively, the possession of armour may have negative trade-offs on other traits involved in antipredator behaviour, such as sprint speed, thus constraining antipredator options relative to those available to unarmoured individuals. To examine these contrasting predictions, we examined species in the lizard family Cordylidae, which contains remarkable morphological diversity, ranging from completely unarmoured to heavily defended species. Moreover, phylogenetic analysis indicates that armour has been an evolutionarily labile trait. We found support for the second prediction. Degree of body armature was inversely correlated with distance run from a predator: heavily armoured species always entered refuges after short distances, whereas many unarmoured lizards continued to flee and could not be induced to enter a refuge. Possession of armour was also negatively related to use of vertical surfaces during escape behavour. These results were unchanged when analysed in a phylogenetic context. Thus, we conclude that the morphological requirements for active flight and armoured defence are incompatible. Heavily armoured species are bulky, have short legs and run more slowly than less armoured species. Rather than constituting an alternative to behavioural antipredator tactics, we conclude that the possession of armour is part of an antipredator syndrome that includes habitat use and behaviour as well as morphology. Copyright 2002 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .
Phenotypic plasticity in the expression of sexually selected traits: neglected components of variation

There are numerous studies of between-individual variation in the expression of sexually selected traits, but relatively few of variation within individuals. We investigated within-individual variation, both between and within years, in the size of the sexually selected white forehead patch of the male collared flycatcher, Ficedula albicollis. Patch size was determined from direct measurements of maximum height and width and by image analysis of photographs. Measures obtained by the two methods were highly correlated with each other. Male patch size showed significant repeatability both within and between years, but repeatability was lower for patch width than for patch height. Recent reanalysis of published data suggests that sexual selection acts mostly on the width of the patch rather than the height, suggesting that the component of patch size subject to sexual selection is most plastic. We found that, within individuals, forehead patch width changed in a predictable manner within years, becoming significantly smaller later in the breeding season. This effect was more pronounced in males with an initially larger patch. Patch size also changed predictably between years: males whose parental effort we manipulated experimentally showed corresponding changes in patch size between years, confirming an earlier finding from this population. Our results show that the size of sexually selected traits can vary within individuals, both in response to trade-offs with other life history traits, and also over short timescales. Such variation in the expression of sexually selected traits is important not only for the information it may provide about the processes controlling variation in such traits, but also because failure to account for it will reduce the accuracy of any attempt to quantify selection on them.
Lesion Focused Super-Resolution

Super-resolution (SR) for image enhancement has great importance in medical image applications. Broadly speaking, there are two types of SR, one requires multiple low resolution (LR) images from different views of the same object to be reconstructed to the high resolution (HR) output, and the other one relies on the learning from a large amount of training datasets, i.e., LR-HR pairs. In real clinical environment, acquiring images from multi-views is expensive and sometimes infeasible. In this paper, we present a novel Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) based learning framework to achieve SR from its LR version. By performing simulation based studies on the Multimodal Brain Tumor Segmentation Challenge (BraTS) datasets, we demonstrate the efficacy of our method in application of brain tumor MRI enhancement. Compared to bilinear interpolation and other state-of-the-art SR methods, our model is lesion focused, which is not only resulted in better perceptual image quality without blurring, but also more efficient and directly benefit for the following clinical tasks, e.g., lesion detection and abnormality enhancement. Therefore, we can envisage the application of our SR method to boost image spatial resolution while maintaining crucial diagnostic information for further clinical tasks.
Competition between strains of Borrelia afzelii inside the rodent host and the tick vector

Multiple-strain pathogens often establish mixed infections inside the host that result in competition between strains. In vector-borne pathogens, the competitive ability of strains must be measured in both the vertebrate host and the arthropod vector to understand the outcome of competition. Such studies could reveal the existence of trade-offs in competitive ability between different host types. We used the tick-borne bacterium Borrelia afzelii to test for competition between strains in the rodent host and the tick vector, and to test for a trade-off in competitive ability between these two host types. Mice were infected via tick bite with either one or two strains, and these mice were subsequently used to create ticks with single or mixed infections. Competition in the rodent host reduced strain-specific host-to-tick transmission and competition in the tick vector reduced the abundance of both strains. The strain that was competitively superior in host-to-tick transmission was competitively inferior with respect to bacterial abundance in the tick. This study suggests that in multiple-strain vector-borne pathogens there are trade-offs in competitive ability between the vertebrate host and the arthropod vector. Such trade-offs could play an important role in the coexistence of pathogen strains.
Sperm competition in the chaffinch: the role of the female

Studies of sperm competition in birds need to consider the extent to which female choice acts in addition to intra-male competition. With this aim, the reproductive behaviour of a colour-marked population of chaffinches, Fringilla coelebs, was studied in relation to the time of the female nesting cycle. The male of the pair was responsible for maintaining pair proximity, and the female increased the rate at which she moved away from her mate as she got closer to egg laying, thus apparently not cooperating with the male's mate guarding. Females had a very distinctive and frequent copulation solicitation display that they performed for up to 15% of their time, peaking 3-5 days before the first egg was laid. Although pairs copulated at a very high rate (peaking at 4·35 copulations/h), fewer than half of the female solicitations were followed by a copulation. Males frequently intruded onto the territories of other pairs, and sometimes achieved extra-pair copulations with females there (14 cases observed); however, females also sometimes sought extra-pair copulations from males on other territories (six cases observed). Males intruded into a territory more often just after the resident female had solicited a copulation, and females solicited extra-pair copulations closer to egg laying than they did pair copulations. It is argued that by performing a conspicuous solicitation display females are in effect signalling their fertility to neighbouring males, and that other behaviour that they perform is consistent with their using the increased level of male-male competition, and their control of copulation behaviour, to choose potential fathers for their offspring.
An Empirical Study of the Relationship between Free Float Ratio and P/E Ratio in Chinese Stock Market

P/E ratio is an important index for each stock in different stock markets, but few empirical researches of P/E ratio in Chinese stock market have been published till now. By the latest nonparametric model specification method, this paper finds a linear relationship between P/E ratio and the reciprocal of free float ratio (RFFR) of individual stocks in China's Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges on the cross-section data of listed companies. This kind of linear relationship represents a typical characteristic of Chinese stock market and furthermore, the linear coefficient of RFFR in the semi-parameter model provides a more convincible estimation to compute the liquidity premium of individual stocks than the coefficient in a line model when controlling the influences of assets and liabilities
A Study on Factors Affecting Adolescents’ Career Maturity

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of students’ individual characteristics and self-efficacy on their career maturity by examining the students who participated in classes using the Art-Physical Education Through Cooperation curriculum. The results of the analysis, to develop students’ desirable career maturity, it is recommended that mothers participate in Protestant religious life and maintain the participation. And mothers also need to have interest in their career development and specialty improvement in consideration of children’s future and career education. Because students’ self-efficacy was found to be an important factor affecting their career maturity, a career-focused program should be developed. And a variety of learner-centered curricular should be operated and learner participation should be encouraged for the realization of normalized education and the support for positive career design.
A Microfluidic Platform for Investigating Transmembrane Pressure-Induced Glomerular Leakage

Transmembrane pressure across the glomerular filter barrier may underlie renal failure. However, studies of renal failure have been difficult owing to a lack of in vitro models to capture the transmembrane pressure in a controlled approach. Here we report a microfluidic platform of podocyte culture to investigate transmembrane pressure induced glomerular leakage. Podocytes, the glomerular epithelial cells essential for filtration function, were cultivated on a porous membrane supplied with transmembrane pressure ΔP. An anodic aluminum oxide membrane with collagen coating was used as the porous membrane, and the filtration function was evaluated using dextrans of different sizes. The results show that dextran in 20 kDa and 70 kDa can penetrate the podocyte membrane, whereas dextran in 500 kDa was blocked until ΔP ≥ 60 mmHg, which resembles the filtration function when ΔP was in the range of a healthy kidney (ΔP < 60 mmHg) as well as the hypertension-induced glomerular leakage (ΔP ≥ 60 mmHg). Additionally, analysis showed that synaptopodin and actin were also downregulated when ΔP > 30 mmHg, indicating that the dysfunction of renal filtration is correlated with the reduction of synaptopodin expression and disorganized actin cytoskeleton. Taking together, our microfluidic platform enables the investigation of transmembrane pressure in glomerular filter membrane, with potential implications for drug development in the future.
The Impacts of Childhood Trauma on Psychosocial Features in a Chinese Sample of Young Adults

Objective The aims of the present study were to explore the occurrence of childhood trauma and importantly to determine the impacts of childhood trauma on psychosocial features in a Chinese sample of young adults. Methods A survey was carried out in a group of 555 university students by using Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Dysfunctional Attitudes Questionnaire (DAS), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), and Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS). The moderate-severe cut-off scores for CTQ were used to calculate the prevalence of childhood trauma, and then psychosocial features were compared between individuals with and without childhood trauma. Results A proportion of 18.6% of university students had self-reported childhood trauma exposures. Subjects with childhood trauma reported higher scores of SDS, SAS, DAS, and psychoticism and neuroticism dimensions of EPQ (t=4.311–5.551, p<0.001); while lower scores of SSRS and extraversion dimension of EPQ (t=-4.061– -3.039, p<0.01). Regression analyses further revealed that scores of SAS and DAS were positively (Adjusted B=0.211–0.230, p<0.05), while scores of SSRS were negatively (Adjusted B=-0.273– -0.240, p<0.05) associated with specific CTQ scores. Conclusion Childhood trauma is still a common social and psychological problem. Individuals with childhood trauma show much more depression, anxiety, distorted cognition, personality deficits, and lower levels of social support, which may represent the social and psychological vulnerability for developing psychiatric disorders after childhood trauma experiences.
Potential crosstalk of oxidative stress and immune response in poultry through phytochemicals — A review

Phytochemicals which exist in various plants and fungi are non-nutritive compounds that exert numerous beneficial bioactive actions for animals. In recent years following the restriction of antibiotics, phytochemicals have been regarded as a primal selection when dealing with the challenges during the producing process in the poultry industry. The selected fast-growing broiler breed was more fragile when confronting the stressors in their growing environments. The disruption of oxidative balance that impairs the production performance in birds may somehow be linked to the immune system since oxidative stress and inflammatory damage are multi-stage processes. This review firstly discusses the individual influence of oxidative stress and inflammation on the poultry industry. Next, studies related to the application of phytochemicals or botanical compounds with the significance of their antioxidant and immunomodulatory abilities are reviewed. Furthermore, we bring up nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) for they are respectively the key transcription factors involved in oxidative stress and inflammation for elucidating the underlying signal transduction pathways. Finally, by the discussion about several reports using phytochemicals to regulate these transcription factors leading to the improvement of oxidative status, heme oxygenase-1 gene is found crucial for Nrf2-mediated NF-κB inhibition.
Fluorescence Enhancement Using Bimetal Surface Plasmon-Coupled Emission from 5-Carboxyfluorescein (FAM)

We demonstrate the enhancement of fluorescence emission from a dye, 5-carboxyfluorescein (FAM), which couples with surface plasmons at the spectral channels of excitation and emission. Experiments and calculations revealed that bimetallic (gold-silver) plasmon, as compared to the monometallic ones, allowed such coupling to be enhanced, at both the spectral channels. We achieved the maximum fluorescence enhancement level of 46.5-fold, with markedly high reproducibility (coefficient of variation ~ 0.5%) at a FAM concentration of 10 nM. We also found that higher fluorescence enhancement was more likely to be reproducible. This encourages the use of this technology for practical applications in fluorescence-based biochemical assays. Moreover, we investigated a FAM concentration-dependent enhancement of fluorescence. It was found that fluorescence enhancement decreased and saturated at above 10 nM concentration possibly due to partial photo-bleaching of FAM molecules.
Patterns of adoption in ring-billed gulls: who is really winning the inter-generational conflict?

Abstract Although at variance with Darwinian theory, adoption of unrelated offspring has been reported in a variety of ground-nesting colonial seabirds. Pierotti & Murphy (1987, Anim. Behav. , 35, 435-444) suggest that an inter-generational conflict exists between disadvantaged chicks and unrelated adults, a conflict that often results in wandering chicks successfully soliciting investment from foster parents. Of 47 ring-billed gull, Larus delawarensis , chicks that departed their natal broods over four summers of field work, 34 remained in recipient broods for 3 or more days and received parental care (i.e. were successfully adopted), and 13 remained in recipient broods for less than 3 days (‘runners’). Chicks in broods that were subsequently subject to abandonment were fed at a significantly lower rate (on a per chick basis) than chicks in control broods (which neither adopted nor had a chick depart) or broods that subsequently adopted a chick. In most cases, adoptees were older than the oldest resident chick in the accepting brood, but runners were younger than resident chicks. Pairs whose oldest chick was less than 7 days were more likely to adopt foreign offspring than pairs with older chicks. Twenty-six (76%) of the 34 adopted chicks survived to at least 24 days (fledged). Pairs that adopted a chick realized a lower annual breeding success (chicks fledged/pair) than control pairs or pairs that had a chick depart their brood. Disadvantaged chicks that gain permanent acceptance into foreign broods ‘win’ the inter-generational conflict at the expense of the foster parents.
Do female red-winged blackbirds benefit genetically from seeking extra-pair copulations?

Abstract Female pursuit of extra-pair copulations was investigated in a western population of red-winged blackbirds,Agelaius phoeniceusPotential genetic benefits to females were considered in this study; potential material gains were examined in Gray (1997Anim. Behav.53, 625–639). In this population, females initiate courtship and copulation outside their social bond, and between 18 and 43% of all breeding females engaged in extra-pair copulations each breeding season. The peak of extra-pair copulation occurred 2 days before the first egg was laid and 1 day closer to egg laying compared to the peak of within-pair copulation, suggesting that extra-pair copulations conferred a genetic advantage to females. Females that copulated with extra-pair males improved their reproductive success by hatching a significantly greater proportion of eggs and fledging a significantly greater proportion of young than females that did not copulate with extra-pair males. Improved hatching success was probably due to female avoidance of temporary male sperm depletion. Improved fledging success resulted from significantly lower depredation rates of clutches laid by females that copulated with multiple males. In addition, a lower proportion of nestlings tended to starve in broods containing extra-pair fertilized offspring. I found no evidence that participation in extra-pair copulations was costly to females. Male aggression towards females was rare, and males were never observed chasing or force-copulating with a mate immediately following an extra-pair copulation. These results show that the selection pressure on females to engage in extra-pair copulations is strong, and they support new theories maintaining that extra-pair copulations are an important aspect of female reproductive success.
Genetic variability of courtship song in a population of Drosophila melanogaster


Abstract Abstract. The courtship song of male Drosophila melanogaster influences mating success and may have been involved in speciation within the melanogaster subgroup. The variability of two important parameters of this song, inter-pulse interval and hum-song frequency, within a large recent collection from a wild population, was examined. The phenotypic variability was low (coefficients of variation were 5·4 and 7·7%, respectively). Although there were indications of variability among males and families, the heritability of both parameters measured by father-son regression was not significant. Twenty isofemale lines from the same population were also examined after 30 generations of culture in the laboratory. These showed similar phenotypic variability, although a greater proportion of this was among families. A single generation of artificial selection showed that this variation included a genetic component which responded to selection. Reasons for the discrepancy between the results of the two studies are discussed. It is concluded that D. melanogaster song shows relatively low phenotypic and additive genetic variability, which is consistent with most expectations for an important mating signal. However, the character can evolve following genetic drift, probably because of non-additive sources of genetic variation in the original population.
Post-school education

This paper uses data from the Census of Population and Housing to examine trends between 2006 and 2016 in post-school educational attainment and participation among the Indigenous population. Indigenous vocational attainment increased considerably between 2006 and 2016. The gap in vocational attainment between Indigenous and non-Indigenous men shrank considerably and Indigenous women are now more likely than non-Indigenous women to have a vocational qualification. Relatively little of the growth in Indigenous vocational attainment between 2011 and 2016 can be attributed to Indigenous identification change. While Indigenous university participation has increased over the past decade, Indigenous university participation and attainment has failed to keep pace with non-Indigenous growth. As a result, there is a large and growing gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous university attendance and attainment of qualifications at degree level and above. A relatively large proportion of the observed growth in Indigenous university attainment between 2011 and 2016 was the result of increasing Indigenous identification in the census.
An Improved Large Signal Model for 0.1 μm AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) Process and Its Applications in Practical Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) Design in W band

An improved empirical large signal model for 0.1 µm AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) process is proposed in this paper. The short channel effect including the drain induced barrier lowering (DIBL) effect and channel length modulation has been considered for the accurate description of DC characteristics. In-house AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with a gate-length of 0.1 μm and different dimensions have been employed to validate the accuracy of the large signal model. Good agreement has been achieved between the simulated and measured S parameters, I-V characteristics and large signal performance at 28 GHz. Furthermore, a monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) power amplifier from 92 GHz to 96 GHz has been designed for validation of the proposed model. Results show that the improved large signal model can be used up to W band.