Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using Otolith Chemistry to Investigate Population Structure of Quillback Rockfish in Puget Sound

Abstract We assess the potential of using otolith chemistry to differentiate quillback rockfish (Sebastes maliger) within Puget Sound, Washington, where two distinct population segments (DPS) have been identified. Using opportunistic collections (1993–2003) of quillback rockfish (n=77; age range of 2–65 yrs.) we first sought to determine whether fish from different sites and regions could be differentiated based on the trace elemental concentrations at the edge of their otoliths (i.e., the chemical record of the fish's recent history). Results of our quadratic discriminant function analysis (QDFA) indicated significant spatial variability for fish collected at relatively large (regions) and small (sites) spatial scales. Specifically, fish collected from regions in 2002 (San Juan Islands and southern Puget Sound) and 2003 (eastern and western Strait of Juan de Fuca) were correctly classified with 100% and 65% accuracy (based on jack-knife classification), respectively, while fish collected from sites in 1998 (Mukilteo and Foulweather) were classified with 100% accuracy. We also investigated whether we could differentiate fish that were collected from different DPS and regions by using elemental concentrations from their whole otolith (which represents environmental information over the lifetime of a fish). Results from the QDFAs indicated relatively high classification success (80%) when comparing fish collected from either different DPS (i.e., Northern Puget Sound and Puget Sound Proper DPS) or regions (i.e., western and eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca). Findings from this study highlight the value of otolith chemistry in the study of population structure of quillback rockfish in Puget Sound.
POSSIBILITY OF DETERMINING STEEL GRAIN SIZE USING ULTRASONIC WAVES

The microstructure of steel is decisive for its chemical, physical and mechanical properties. Depending on the parameters characterising liquid metal as well as the parameters of the steel casting influencing the crystallisation process, the macrostructure of casts and ingots consist of three, two or only one crystallisation zone. In steel ingots, its most frequent by consist of three zones: chill, columnar and equiaxed grains. The structure of finished hot worked steel depends to a considerable extent on the primary structure of cast steel. Therefore, the knowledge of the microstructure of cast steel is very important on each stage of the steel products manufacturing.
Power efficiency of user cooperation in multihop wireless networks

In this paper we analyze the power efficiency of a user cooperation scheme for multihop wireless networks. In this scheme, the signals are jointly transmitted by two mobile terminals (MTs), emulating transmit macro diversity. We derive the optimal transmit power assignments for the two transmitting MTs and quantify the power efficiency of the scheme. The results indicate that macro diversity by way of user cooperation can substantially reduce the total consumed power in multihop wireless networks for wide range of topologies of MTs and their distances.
The Application of SVM and GA-BP Algorithms in Stock Market Prediction

Neural network has been popular in time series prediction in financial areas, because of their advantages in handling nonlinear systems. This paper hybridizes genetic algorithm and artificial neural network method (GABP), and hybridizes principal component analysis and support vector machine (PCA-SVM) to predict the next opening price in stock markets. Principal component analysis method is applied to extract contribution rate to meet 95% of the principal component as the input variables with FAW Car and Minmetals Rare Earth to be modeled and predicted, and genetic algorithm is employed to determine the initial weight and threshold of the BP neural network. The experiment results demonstrate that the combination methods (PCA-SVM and GA-BP) perform better, and the GA-BP method can get higher prediction accuracy than other three prediction methods. Key–Words: Stock prediction, Principal components analysis, Support vector machine, Artificial neural network, Genetic algorithm.
Invisible Scars: Comparing the Mental Health of LGB and Heterosexual Intimate Partner Violence Survivors

ABSTRACT Intimate partner violence (IPV) affects countless women and men in lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) as well as heterosexual relationships, but few studies have examined how such abuse is associated with the mental health of LGB victims. The present study addresses this issue using data from the 2006 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey to examine differences in depression and anxiety among IPV victims in LGB and heterosexual partnerships. The findings indicate LGB IPV victims are much more likely to have a history of depression (OR 1.70, p < .05) and anxiety (OR 1.70, p < .05) than heterosexual victims. These differences are slightly mediated by the victim’s perceived emotional support but not the type of abuse experienced. Our findings accentuate the need for greater inclusion of LGB persons in the IPV and mental health discourse, as well as the importance of social support for IPV victims. Policy implications for members of the LGB community are discussed.
Characterization of Poliovirus Neutralization Escape Mutants of Single-Domain Antibody Fragments (VHHs)

ABSTRACT To complete the eradication of poliovirus and to protect unvaccinated people subsequently, the development of one or more antiviral drugs will be necessary. A set of five single-domain antibody fragments (variable parts of the heavy chain of a heavy-chain antibody [VHHs]) with an in vitro neutralizing activity against poliovirus type 1 was developed previously (B. Thys, L. Schotte, S. Muyldermans, U. Wernery, G. Hassanzadeh-Ghassabeh, and B. Rombaut, Antiviral Res 87:257–264, 2010, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.antiviral.2010.05.012), and their mechanisms of action have been studied (L. Schotte, M. Strauss, B. Thys, H. Halewyck, D. J. Filman, M. Bostina, J. M. Hogle, and B. Rombaut, J Virol 88:4403–4413, 2014, http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/JVI.03402-13). In this study, neutralization escape mutants were selected for each VHH. Sequencing of the P1 region of the genome showed that amino acid substitutions are found in the four viral proteins of the capsid and that they are located both in proximity to the binding sites of the VHHs and in regions further away from the canyon and hidden beneath the surface. Characterization of the mutants demonstrated that they have single-cycle replication kinetics that are similar to those of their parental strain and that they are all drug (VHH) independent. Their resistant phenotypes are stable, as they do not regain full susceptibility to the VHH after passage over HeLa cells in the absence of VHH. They are all at least as stable as the parental strain against heat inactivation at 44°C, and three of them are even significantly (P < 0.05) more resistant to heat inactivation. The resistant variants all still can be neutralized by at least two other VHHs and retain full susceptibility to pirodavir and 35-1F4.
Effective control allocation in fault-tolerant flight control using feedback linearisation and model predictive control

This paper features the combination of model-based predictive control and feedback linearisation into a constrained and globally valid control method for fault tolerant flight-control purposes. The fact that the approach is both constrained and model-based creates the possibility to incorporate additional constraints, or even a new model, in case of a failure situation. Both of these properties lead to the fault-tolerant qualities of the method. Efficient distribution of the desired control moves over the control effectors creates the possibility to separate the input allocation problem from the feedback linearisation loop when redundant actuators are available. A simulation example is incorporated that shows that the proposed control method can suitably cope with two distinct types of failure under the assumption that fault detection and isolation information about the failure is available.
Enhanced Survival of Salmonella enterica in Vesicles Released by a Soilborne Tetrahymena Species

ABSTRACT Nondestructive ingestion by soilborne protozoa may enhance the environmental resiliency of important bacterial pathogens and may model how such bacteria evade destruction in human macrophages. Here, the interaction of Salmonella enterica serovar Thompson with a soilborne Tetrahymena sp. isolate was examined using serovar Thompson cells labeled with the green fluorescent protein. The bacteria were mixed in solution with cells of Tetrahymena at several ratios. During incubation with serovar Thompson, Tetrahymena cells released a large number of vesicles containing green fluorescent serovar Thompson cells. In comparison, grazing on Listeria monocytogenes cells resulted in their digestion and thus the infrequent release of this pathogen in vesicles. The number of serovar Thompson cells per vesicle increased significantly as the initial ratio of serovar Thompson to Tetrahymena cells increased from 500:1 to 5,000:1. The density of serovar Thompson was as high as 50 cells per vesicle. Staining with propidium iodide revealed that a significantly higher proportion of serovar Thompson cells remained viable when enclosed in vesicles than when free in solution. Enhanced survival rates were observed in vesicles that were secreted by both starved (F = 28.3, P < 0.001) and unstarved (F = 14.09, P < 0.005) Tetrahymena cells. Sequestration in vesicles also provided greater protection from low concentrations of calcium hypochlorite. Thus, the release of this human pathogen from Tetrahymena cells in high-density clusters enclosed in a membrane may have important implications for public health.
Characteristics of renal sympathetic nerve single units in rabbits with angiotensin‐induced hypertension

What is the central question of this study? Is the elevated whole renal nerve activity observed with chronic low‐dose angiotensin the result of recruitment or changes in firing frequency of renal neurons? What is the main finding and its importance? Resting firing frequency of renal neurons is lower with low‐dose angiotensin, but cardiac rhythmicity is reduced by high‐dose angiotensin. Unitary responses to baroreceptor stimulation are reduced, but there is greater sensitivity of central chemoreceptor pathways. Elevated nerve activity in conscious animals is the result of recruitment of individual neurons normally silent but available for recruitment during physiological challenge.
Particle smoother for nonlinear systems with colored measurement noises

In this paper, a new particle smoother (PS) is proposed to solve the nonlinear and non-Gaussian smoothing problem of nonlinear systems with colored measurement noises based on measurement differencing scheme. The proposed PS has the same computational complexity as standard PS designed for nonlinear systems with white measurement noises. The superior performance of the proposed PS as compared with existing methods is illustrated in a numerical example concerning passive ranging problem.
Adrenocortical axis responses to adrenergic and glutamate stimulation are regulated by the amygdala

We have examined the effect of lesions of the central and medial amygdala on the pituitary–adrenal responses to noradrenergic stimulation and to the injection of glutamate into the paraventricular nucleus. Bilateral lesions of the amygdalar nuclei inhibited adrenocorticotrophic hormone and corticosterone responses to electrical stimulation of the ventral noradrenergic bundle, and to the injection of the &agr;1-adrenergic agonist phenylephrine or glutamate. These results suggest that the amygdala may facilitate the stimulatory roles of noradrenaline and glutamate on the adrenocortical axis. The data contribute to understanding the mechanisms by which the amygdala is involved in the function of this axis.
A Broadband Implantable and a Dual-Band On-Body Repeater Antenna: Design and Transmission Performance

The design of a new miniature broadband implantable antenna and a dual-band on-body antenna are presented along with the transmission performance between the two. The former and latter antennas are intended for integration into implantable medical devices (IMDs) and on-body repeaters, respectively. The on-body repeater antenna favors the use of very low power IMDs. The on-body repeater receives low power data from an IMD (MedRadio band, 401-406 MHz) and retransmits it to remote devices placed further apart (ISM band, 2400-2480 MHz ). The MedRadio implantable antenna maintains miniature size (399 mm3), and exhibits two close resonances which increase the -10 dB bandwidth inside muscle tissue (87 MHz). The on-body antenna is relatively small (6720 mm3), and exhibits dual resonances in the MedRadio and ISM bands. Assuming a typical arm implantation scenario and an on-body receiver sensitivity of -75 dBm, the proposed configuration is found to enable reduction of the IMD power by a factor of 100. Patient safety and tolerance to electromagnetic interference are, thus, preserved, and lifetime of the IMD is increased. The setup is, finally, shown to be robust to antenna misalignment and polarization rotation.
Measurement of thiols in human plasma using liquid chromatography with precolumn derivatization and fluorescence detection.

A liquid chromatography (LC) method for the simultaneous measurement of the main low molecular mass thiols (i.e., cysteine, cysteinylglycine, homocysteine, and glutathione) in human plasma is described. The sample treatment consists of the reduction of disulfide bounds with tri-n-butylphosphine and protein precipitation with trichloroacetic acid followed by precolumn derivatization with a thiol-selective fluorogenic reagent (7-fluoro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole-4-sulfonamide). The structure of thiol derivatives is assessed using electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (MS). The stability of resulting adducts in acidic medium (24 h at 10 degrees C) allows the automation of the technique and a high throughput of samples (approximately 50 per day). Separation is complete within 12 min using isocratic reversed-phase mode, and detection is operated by spectrofluorimetry (lambda ex = 385 nm and lambda em = 515 nm). Quantitation is performed by an internal standardization mode using thioglycolic acid. The LC method is fully validated, and homocysteine concentrations obtained in plasma samples are compared with values measured using either fluorescence polarization immunoassay or capillary gas chromatography-MS; a good correlation is observed between LC and both methods. The method has been applied in daily use to a large-scale study in a human healthy population, and some resulting data are discussed.
Contribution of Large Region Joint Associations to Complex Traits Genetics

A polygenic model of inheritance, whereby hundreds or thousands of weakly associated variants contribute to a trait’s heritability, has been proposed to underlie the genetic architecture of complex traits. However, relatively few genetic variants have been positively identified so far and they collectively explain only a small fraction of the predicted heritability. We hypothesized that joint association of multiple weakly associated variants over large chromosomal regions contributes to complex traits variance. Confirmation of such regional associations can help identify new loci and lead to a better understanding of known ones. To test this hypothesis, we first characterized the ability of commonly used genetic association models to identify large region joint associations. Through theoretical derivation and simulation, we showed that multivariate linear models where multiple SNPs are included as independent predictors have the most favorable association profile. Based on these results, we tested for large region association with height in 3,740 European participants from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) study. Adjusting for SNPs with known association with height, we demonstrated clustering of weak associations (p = 2x10-4) in regions extending up to 433.0 Kb from known height loci. The contribution of regional associations to phenotypic variance was estimated at 0.172 (95% CI 0.063-0.279; p < 0.001), which compared favorably to 0.129 explained by known height variants. Conversely, we showed that suggestively associated regions are enriched for known height loci. To extend our findings to other traits, we also tested BMI, HDLc and CRP for large region associations, with consistent results for CRP. Our results demonstrate the presence of large region joint associations and suggest these can be used to pinpoint weakly associated SNPs.
Development of Multiple Big Data Analytics Platforms with Rapid Response

The crucial problem of the integration of multiple platforms is how to adapt for their own computing features so as to execute the assignments most efficiently and gain the best outcome. This paper introduced the new approaches to big data platform, RHhadoop and SparkR, and integrated them to form a high-performance big data analytics with multiple platforms as part of business intelligence (BI) to carry out rapid data retrieval and analytics with R programming. This paper aims to develop the optimization for job scheduling using MSHEFT algorithm and implement the optimized platform selection based on computing features for improving the system throughput significantly. In addition, users would simply give R commands rather than run Java or Scala program to perform the data retrieval and analytics in the proposed platforms. As a result, according to performance index calculated for various methods, although the optimized platform selection can reduce the execution time for the data retrieval and analytics significantly, furthermore scheduling optimization definitely increases the system efficiency a lot.
Predictive Modeling: Guessing the NLP Terms of Tomorrow

Predictive modeling, often called “predictive analytics” in a commercial context, encompasses a variety of statistical techniques that analyze historical and present facts to make predictions about unknown events. Often the unknown events are in the future, but prediction can be applied to any type of unknown whether it be in the past or future. In our case, we present some experiments applying predictive modeling to the usage of technical terms within the NLP domain.
Design of CMOS differential LNA at 2.4GHz

This paper present design and simulation of differential low noise amplifier that utilized inductively degenerated common-source (CS) open drain cascode topology. The operating frequency for the design was at 2.4GHz for IEEE 802.11b standard. The LNA has been implemented in RF 0.13um CMOS process. Power constraint noise optimization method has been used to obtain the optimized width of the transistor with a low noise figure and good power gain. Post layout simulation provides a forward gain (S21) of 18.56dB, S11 of -27.63dB with a noise figure (NF) of 1.85dB and IIP3 = -7.75. The total current consumed by the circuit is 7.59mA thus making the power consumption is 9mW.
NEDD4-2 (neural precursor cell expressed, developmentally down-regulated 4-2) negatively regulates TGF-β (transforming growth factor-β) signalling by inducing ubiquitin-mediated degradation of Smad2 and TGF-β type I receptor

Inhibitory Smad, Smad7, is a potent inhibitor of TGF-β (transforming growth factor-β) superfamily signalling. By binding to activated type I receptors, it prevents the activation of R-Smads (receptor-regulated Smads). To identify new components of the Smad pathway, we performed yeast two-hybrid screening using Smad7 as bait, and identified NEDD4-2 (neural precursor cell expressed, developmentally down-regulated 4-2) as a direct binding partner of Smad7. NEDD4-2 is structurally similar to Smurfs (Smad ubiquitin regulatory factors) 1 and 2, which were identified previously as E3 ubiquitin ligases for R-Smads and TGF-β superfamily receptors. NEDD4-2 functions like Smurfs 1 and 2 in that it associates with TGF-β type I receptor via Smad7, and induces its ubiquitin-dependent degradation. Moreover, NEDD4-2 bound to TGF-β-specific R-Smads, Smads 2 and 3, in a ligand-dependent manner, and induced degradation of Smad2, but not Smad3. However, in contrast with Smurf2, NEDD4-2 failed to induce ubiquitination of SnoN (Ski-related novel protein N), although NEDD4-2 bound to SnoN via Smad2 more strongly than Smurf2. We showed further that overexpressed NEDD4-2 prevents transcriptional activity induced by TGF-β and BMP, whereas silencing of the NEDD4-2 gene by siRNA (small interfering RNA) resulted in enhancement of the responsiveness to TGF-β superfamily cytokines. These data suggest that NEDD4-2 is a member of the Smurf-like C2-WW-HECT (WW is Trp-Trp and HECT is homologous to the E6-accessory protein) type E3 ubiquitin ligases, which negatively regulate TGF-β superfamily signalling through similar, but not identical, mechanisms to those used by Smurfs.
Expression of Transforming Growth Factor-β 1, -β 2, and -β 3 in Human Developing Teeth: Immunolocalization According to the Odontogenesis Phases

Transforming growth factor–β (TGF-β) is a multifunctional growth factor that has several biological effects in vivo, including control of cell growth and differentiation, cell migration, lineage determination, motility, adhesion, apoptosis, and synthesis and degradation of extracellular matrix, and TGF-β plays an important role in regulating tissue repair and regeneration. Our study analyzed the participation of TGF-β 1, -β 2, and -β 3 in the different stages of morphogenesis and differentiation of human developing dental organ using immunohistochemistry. The maxillae and mandibles of 10 human embryos ranging from 8 to 23 weeks of gestation were employed, according to the approval of the ethical committee. Our study revealed that the TGF-β subunits—β 1, β 2, and β 3—were present in the various stages of tooth development, but the expression varied according to the differentiation stage, tissue, and TGF-β subunit. Our results indicated that TGF-β 1 is closely related to differentiation of enamel organ and initiation of matrix secretion, TGF-β 2 to cellular differentiation, and TGF-β 3 to mineral maturation matrix.
Benefiting from Open Source Development Methodologies in Global Information Systems Organizations

The current trend in outsourcing development to foreign countries where cheap programming labor and extensions of the workday can be had is creating its own set of problems. The traditional development model runs into various communication, collaboration and management problems when employed in a Global Virtual Team (GVT). The Open Source Software (OSS) development model has been created with a globally dispersed, Internet connected, development team from its inception and thus has addressed some of the problems that GVTs are encountering. This paper looks at the problems that are introduced in the traditional development model when it is used by a GVT and proposes that the adoption of selected OSS methods and tools will help to alleviate some of those problems and provide the cost, quality and time benefits that are sought in the implementation of GVTs.