Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relating the ontogeny of functional morphology and prey selection with larval mortality in Amphiprion frenatus

Survival during the pelagic larval phase of marine fish is highly variable and is subject to numerous factors. A sharp decline in the number of surviving larvae usually occurs during the transition from endogenous to exogenous feeding known as the first feeding stage in fish larvae. The present study was designed to evaluate the link between functional morphology and prey selection in an attempt to understand how the relationship influences mortality of a marine fish larva, Amphiprion frenatus, through ontogeny. Larvae were reared from hatch to 14 days post hatch (DPH) with one of four diets [rotifers and newly hatched Artemia sp. nauplii (RA); rotifers and wild plankton (RP); rotifers, wild plankton, and newly hatched Artemia nauplii (RPA); wild plankton and newly hatched Artemia nauplii (PA)]. Survival did not differ among diets. Larvae from all diets experienced mass mortality from 1 to 5 DPH followed by decreased mortality from 6 to 14 DPH; individuals fed RA were the exception, exhibiting continuous mortality from 6 to 14 DPH. Larvae consumed progressively larger prey with growth and age, likely due to age related increase in gape. During the mass mortality event, larvae selected small prey items and exhibited few ossified elements. Cessation of mass mortality coincided with consumption of large prey and ossification of key elements of the feeding apparatus. Mass mortality did not appear to be solely influenced by inability to establish first feeding. We hypothesize the interaction of reduced feeding capacities (i.e., complexity of the feeding apparatus) and larval physiology such as digestion or absorption efficiency contributed to the mortality event during the first feeding period. J. Morphol. , 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Exercise Training Improves Insulin Release During Glucose Tolerance Testing in Stable Chronic Heart Failure Patients

PURPOSE: Chronic heart failure (CHF) patients often present with (pre)diabetes, which negatively influences prognosis. Unlike the proven effect of exercise on glucose regulation in the general population, its effect in CHF is unclear. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating the effect of exercise training on glucose regulation in stable CHF patients. METHODS: Twenty-two CHF patients were randomized into training (EX, n = 15) and control (CON, n = 7) groups. Before and after a 12-week training intervention involving endurance and resistance training, glucose tolerance (2-hour oral glucose tolerance test), exercise tolerance (cardiopulmonary exercise test), muscle strength (isokinetic dynamometer), heart function (echocardiography), glycated hemoglobin, body composition (dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry), and quality of life (EQ5D) were assessed. RESULTS: At baseline, glucose levels 2 hours after glucose intake were elevated in both groups. Whereas area under the glucose curve did not change, area under the insulin curve decreased following training (EX, −13 ± 23% vs CON, +22 ± 33%; P < .05). Changes in the ratio of mitral peak velocity of early filling/early diastolic mitral annular velocity and waist-to-hip fat mass ratio were related to changes in the insulin curve. Exercise training resulted in improved oxygen uptake at the second ventilatory threshold (EX, +10 ± 5% vs CON, −8 ± 5%; P < .05) and isokinetic strength endurance of the upper leg (EX, +25 ± 9% vs CON, −6 ± 5%; P < 0.05). Lean body tissue was increased by 2.2 ± 0.5% in EX versus 0.2 ± 0.6% in CON (P < .05). CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that exercise training attenuates worsening of glucose regulation typically seen in a stable CHF population.
The effects of the global financial crisis on the Colombian local currency bonds prices: An event study

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to perform an event study using high frequency data on peso-denominated Colombian government bonds to measure the effects of news during the global financial crisis (GFC). Design/methodology/approach Using standard event study methodology, the authors want to see if a surprise (originating from macroeconomic news and GFC events) has a significant effect on asset prices measurable as abnormal returns. The authors also assume that the US market acted as a transmission mechanism for the crisis in a standard market model framework and control for confounding effects from events that originated from the crisis by taking into account the effect of global, regional and local macroeconomic surprises in the period before, during and after the GFC. Findings The results show that there was resilience and decoupling of the Colombian local currency bond market from the events of the GFC. Research limitations/implications The results show that there was resilience (in terms of abnormal returns) and decoupling of the Colombian local currency bond market from the events of the GFC. The paper also finds that, on an average, Colombian bonds performed better during the period of the GFC than the period before and after the GFC. Practical implications In the event study using individual bonds the paper finds that, in most cases, negative news had a positive impact in Colombian bond prices during the GFC. Social implications These results have important policy implications in emerging markets economies in terms of the benefits of substituting foreign currency debt with local currency debt. Originality/value This paper provides a date and time-specific timeline (Table III) of the most significant GFC events and news. The paper finds that for all the periods under observation local news related to inflation had the greatest impact in bond prices. In the case of global and regional news, inflation and trade-related surprises had also significant effects on bond prices but to a lesser extent.
MS-based Plant Metabolomic Approaches for Biomarker Discovery

Metabolomics, which aims at the comprehensive and quantitative analysis of wide arrays of metabolites in biological samples, is playing an increasingly important role in plant science. Various biological issues have been successfully studied by this holistic approach that includes global metabolite composition assessment, mutant characterization, taxonomy, developmental processes, stress response, interaction with environment, quality control assessment and mode of action of herbal medicine. This review summarizes the main mass spectrometry methods used for performing these studies and discusses the potential, but also the current limitations of the various approaches. The intention is not to cover exhaustively the field, which has considerably grown over about one decade, but to give a brief insight into the methods commonly employed and discuss some applications that reveal the potential of metabolomics in phytochemistry and systems biology.
A Case Study Exploring Organizational Development and Performance Management in the Operational Infrastructure of a Professional Working Organization, Using Academic Constructs

Curriculum, as a concept, has been historically associated with traditional schooling, but the reality is that its application extends to many arenas beyond academia. Through the case study lens, this dissertation utilized the ideologies of curricular theorists John Dewey, John Franklin Bobbitt, and Ralph Tyler to explore how intended, enacted, and assessed curricula phases can integrate into a professional working organization’s comprehensive functionality and materialize into the planning and implementation of its operational infrastructure. Following content analysis of a selected institution’s operational system, using closed codes, a descriptive comprehensive curriculum was designed to address the research purpose of understanding employee performance and organizational outcomes. Findings indicated that curricular phases are inherently embedded into the organizational development and performance management of nonacademic spaces; moreover, the framework of an organization’s operational infrastructure consists largely of curriculum elements. The primary research implication invokes being able to manage the efficiency and effectiveness levels of (a) personnel unit performance and (b) the workplace environment, through curriculum analysis and
The Management of the 2015 EU Refugee Crisis from the perspective of The Harris-Todaro Model

The actual refugee crisis in Europe was triggered by the violent events following the so-called Arab Spring that started in 2011. Faced with large masses of immigrants and refugees, EU member states implemented a refugee quota system in order to distribute refugees across EU. This paper is questioning the general belief that all immigrants and refugees within EU live in better conditions than in their origin areas. Furthermore, this paper tries to answer at the following question: Why some migrants prefer to come to Europe if there is a high probability that they will live in worse conditions in refugees camps than in their home countries? Studying this question has at least two main important implications: firstly, the reader will understand better the reasons which determine migrants to leave their origin areas despite the fact that they can be caught in a death trap; secondly, the answer provided for this question may give future solutions in the field of policy-making for EU’s member states.
Epidemiology of ALS in Italy

Objective: To describe the temporal patterns of incidence and demographic characteristics of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in Piemonte and Valle d’Aosta, Italy, in the 10-year period 1995 through 2004. Methods: The Piemonte and Valle d’Aosta Register for ALS (PARALS) is a prospective register collecting all cases of ALS incident in two regions of northwestern Italy (population: 4,332,842) since 1995. The cases are identified using several concurrent sources. ALS diagnosis is based on El Escorial criteria. Results: During the 10-year period of observation, 1,347 residents in the study area were diagnosed with ALS. In 1,260 of these cases, a diagnosis of definite or probable ALS was made at presentation or during the follow-up. The mean annual crude incidence rate was 2.90/100,000 population (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.72 to 3.09). The crude prevalence rate (December 31, 2004) was 7.89 (95% CI, 7.09 to 8.75)/100,000 population. According to the capture-recapture estimation, 27 patients were unobserved, thus increasing the annual observed crude incidence to 2.96/100,000 population. The incidence rate did not show any relevant variation during the 10-year period of the study and was constantly higher among men. The demographics and clinical features did not change between the 1995–1999 and the 2000–2004 cohorts, with the notable exception of the mean time delay from onset to diagnosis, which was significantly decreased in the last 5-year period. Conclusions: In the examined decade, the incidence of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in Italy has been stable, and the clinical and demographic characteristics of the patients have shown no relevant modifications. ALS = amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; CI = confidence interval; EEC = El Escorial diagnostic criteria; EEC-R = El Escorial revised criteria; MND = motor neuron disease; PARALS = Piemonte and Valle d’Aosta Register for ALS; PCRA = Piemonte Central Regional Archive; VACRA = Valle d’Aosta Central Regional Archive.
The role of telomeres in the mechanisms and evolution of life-history trade-offs and ageing

Evolutionary biology and biomedicine have seen a surge of recent interest in the possibility that telomeres play a role in life-history trade-offs and ageing. Here, I evaluate alternative hypotheses for the role of telomeres in the mechanisms and evolution of life-history trade-offs and ageing, and highlight outstanding challenges. First, while recent findings underscore the possibility of a proximate causal role for telomeres in current–future trade-offs and ageing, it is currently unclear (i) whether telomeres ever play a causal role in either and (ii) whether any causal role for telomeres arises via shortening or length-independent mechanisms. Second, I consider why, if telomeres do play a proximate causal role, selection has not decoupled such a telomere-mediated trade-off between current and future performance. Evidence suggests that evolutionary constraints have not rendered such decoupling impossible. Instead, a causal role for telomeres would more plausibly reflect an adaptive strategy, born of telomere maintenance costs and/or a function for telomere attrition (e.g. in countering cancer), the relative importance of which is currently unclear. Finally, I consider the potential for telomere biology to clarify the constraints at play in life-history evolution, and to explain the form of the current–future trade-offs and ageing trajectories that we observe today. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Understanding diversity in telomere dynamics’.
Performance of double binary turbo coding for visible light communication systems

At the ubiquitous age, applications of Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) technology using LEDs are in progress. However, visible light communication using LED have weakness, which deteriorates performance of communication. To reduce information losses, which is caused by optical noise, such as incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps, sunbeam etc., proposed channel coding scheme, double binary turbo codes. In this paper, encoding and decoding scheme of the proposed system is described and simulation results are analyzed. We had expected improved performance by using double binary turbo codes. Finally, performances of the proposed system came up to our expectations.
Innovation, technology policy and regional development : evidence from China and Australia

This volume is the result of a comparative investigation that contrasts micro-systems of innovation in several regions of China and Australia - two vastly different countries in terms of traditions, industry structures, political systems and economic organization. Six regional studies comprehensively document the experiences of firms engaged in product or process innovation. The book also examines the institutions that support research and development and the impact of government policies on innovation in each of the regions studied. The case studies present original and informative insights into the different ways in which local, national and transnational interest interact and influence regional development. These findings support the view that local innovation systems are emerging with quite different structural characteristics. The authors conclude that local, national and transnational dimensions are continually redefining and aligning themselves in novel and interesting ways. They highlight the importance of identifying these structural relationships in order to encourage dynamic innovation to occur. This, they argue, has important implications for policymakers concerned with the promotion of innovation in regional areas.
Alteration of corticotropin‐releasing factor immunoreactivity in MPTP‐treated rats

A decrease of corticotropin‐releasing factor (CRF) concentration has been reported in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). The present study further examined the role of CRF in an animal model of parkinsonism induced by 1‐methyl‐4‐phenyl‐1,2,3,6‐tetrahydropyridine (MPTP). Results indicated that both subchronic (2 days) and chronic (7 days) MPTP treatments decreased the number of CRF immunoreactive neurons in both the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus and the central nuelcus of the amygdala (ACN). This effect lasted for almost a month after withdrawal of chronic MPTP injections. In addition, nomifensine pretreatment protected against MPTP's toxicity on DA neurons, as assessed by tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity in the substantia nigra. However, the same treatment did not prevent the toxicity of MPTP on CRF neurons. Further, no significant difference was notable in the number of CRF immunoreactive neurons between normal young adult and normal middle‐aged rats in both the PVN and the ACN. These results suggest that MPTP also produces a neurotoxicity on CRF neurons, and this effect is not secondary to MPTP's effect on DA neurons. Besides, altered CRF neuronal activity is involved in the process of pathological ageing, but not physiological ageing. Further, reduced CRF immunoreactivity in the PVN and ACN may imply alterations of neuroendocrine, autonomic as well as central functions caused by MPTP. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
In-Building Wireless Distribution in Legacy Multimode Fiber With an Improved RoMMF System

A radio over multimode fiber (RoMMF) system for in-building wireless distribution employing a directly modulated Fabry-Perot transmitter and the central launch technique is presented. The worst-case spurious free dynamic range exceeds 105 dB × Hz2/3 up to 525 m of OM2 MMF. Experimental and theoretical results are reported showing that this scheme outperforms a RoMMF system employing a distributed feed-back laser diode and/or a mode scrambler to achieve overfilled launch. Long term evolution signal transmission is achieved with high quality in terms of adjacent channel leakage ratio and error vector magnitude.
A refractive-index fiber sensor by using no-core fibers

A simple, small-size, compact and high-sensitivity refractive-index sensor composed of a short no-core fiber (NCF) about 20 mm in length sandwiched between two pieces of single-mode fibers is proposed in this paper. The index measurement is experimentally demonstrated with the sensitivity of 7792.85 nm/ RIU in the range from 1.440 to 1.454 and 227.14 nm/ RIU in the range from 1.300 to 1.430. This sensing mechanism is based on the induced multi-mode interfering wavelength shift in the no-core fiber when the reflective index of the fiber outside is changed.
Evidence for Diabetic Encephalopathy

Auditory brain stem responses were recorded in 20 normoacoustic long‐duration Type 1 diabetic patients (duration of diabetes 26 (range 13–46) years, age 44 (25–66) years) with peripheral neuropathy and retinopathy and in 19 sex‐matched normoacoustic short‐duration Type 1 diabetic patients (duration of diabetes 2 (0–6) years, age 23 (18–50) years) without clinical signs of neuropathy or microangiopathy. Abnormal brain stem auditory evoked responses were demonstrated in 40% of the long‐duration and in 5.3% of the short‐duration diabetic patients (p < 0.01). Interpeak latencies Jv—JI and JIII‐JI were significantly prolonged in both patient groups compared with the non‐diabetic control group (p < 0.01). Magnetic resonance imaging was performed in 16 of the long‐duration patients and in 40 age‐matched healthy volunteers on a whole body MR‐scanner. Subcortical and/or brain stem lesions with abnormally high signals were seen in 69% of the long‐duration Type 1 patients and in 12% of the healthy volunteers (p < 0.02). Neuropsychological examination including 17 tests for intelligence and cognition were performed in the 20 long‐duration Type 1 diabetic patients. The results indicated a performance close to that seen in a control group of healthy age‐matched control subjects. Our study demonstrates that a considerable proportion of long‐duration Type 1 diabetic patients suffering from retinopathy and peripheral neuropathy additionally have signs but no symptoms of central nervous system affection, diabetic encephalopathy.
Inactivation of a putative flagellar motor switch protein FliG1 prevents Borrelia burgdorferi from swimming in highly viscous media and blocks its infectivity

The flagellar motor switch complex protein FliG plays an essential role in flagella biosynthesis and motility. In most motile bacteria, only one fliG homologue is present in the genome. However, several spirochete species have two putative fliG genes (referred to as fliG1 and fliG2) and their roles in flagella assembly and motility remain unknown. In this report, the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi was used as a genetic model to investigate the roles of these two fliG homologues. It was found that fliG2 encodes a typical motor switch complex protein that is required for the flagellation and motility of B. burgdorferi. In contrast, the function of fliG1 is quite unique. Disruption of fliG1 did not affect flagellation and the mutant was still motile but failed to translate in highly viscous media. GFP‐fusion and motion tracking analyses revealed that FliG1 asymmetrically locates at one end of cells and the loss of fliG1 somehow impacted one bundle of flagella rotation. In addition, animal studies demonstrated that the fliG1− mutant was quickly cleared after inoculation into the murine host, which highlights the importance of the ability to swim in highly viscous media in the infectivity of B. burgdorferi and probably other pathogenic spirochetes.
Classification of Hyperspectral Image Based on Sparse Representation in Tangent Space

In many real-world problems, data always lie in a low-dimensional manifold. Exploiting the manifold can greatly enhance the discrimination between different categories. In this letter, we propose a classification framework based on sparse representation to directly exploit the underlying manifold. Specifically, using the tangent plane to approximate the local manifold of each test sample, the proposed method classifies the sample by sparse representation in tangent space. Unlike several existing sparse-representation-based classification methods, which sparsely represent the test sample itself, the proposed method sparsely represents the local manifold of the test sample by tangent plane approximation. Therefore, it goes beyond the sample itself and is more robust to kinds of variations confronted in hyperspectral image (HSI) such as illustration differences and spectrum mixing. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms several state-of-the-art methods for the classification of HSI with limited training samples.
Environmental pollution and public health: The socio-economic analysis of the global drivers of change

Environment and health are inextricably interlinked. The physical environment, such as drinking water, sanitation, housing, and air, has considerable effects on the health status and well being of people. Environmental change and its attendant health impacts are driven by many factors, including economic growth, population growth and movements. The three broad trends — the intensification of agriculture, industrialization, and rising energy use — which stand out in terms of their profound impacts on the physical environment and their enormous potential for influencing human health. Rapid urbanization and the uncontrolled growth of urban slums are now creating a double environmental health burden for the urban poor. In India, premature death and illness due to major environmental health risks accounts for nearly 20 percent of the total burden of disease in India. Proper environmental management is the key to avoiding the quarter of all preventable illnesses which are directly caused by environmental factors. There is an immediate need to tackle environmental health issues. Problems such as unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene, and air pollution are major contributors to the worldwide disease burden.
Social Accounting - In the Wake of the Sustainability

Not only the strenghthening of global competition and the acceleration of technological evolution, but also the social and governmental claims for sustainability draw up new challanges and expectations against the decision support and accounting, too. Whether would the decision support and accounting be able to perform these challanges and expectations nowadays? The aim of the authors is to present some segments of these changes to the reader by this study.