Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wide-ranging consequences of priority effects governed by an overarching factor

Priority effects, where arrival order and initial relative abundance modulate local species interactions, can exert taxonomic, functional, and evolutionary influences on ecological communities by driving them to alternative states. It remains unclear if these wide-ranging consequences of priority effects can be explained systematically by a common underlying factor. Here, we identify such a factor in an empirical system. In a series of field and laboratory studies, we focus on how pH affects nectar-colonizing microbes and their interactions with plants and pollinators. In a field survey, we found that nectar microbial communities in a hummingbird-pollinated shrub, Diplacus (formerly Mimulus) aurantiacus, exhibited abundance patterns indicative of alternative stable states that emerge through domination by either bacteria or yeasts within individual flowers. In addition, nectar pH varied among D. aurantiacus flowers in a manner that is consistent with the existence of these alternative stable states. In laboratory experiments, Acinetobacter nectaris, the bacterium most commonly found in D. aurantiacus nectar, exerted a strongly negative priority effect against Metschnikowia reukaufii, the most common nectar-specialist yeast, by reducing nectar pH. This priority effect likely explains the mutually exclusive pattern of dominance found in the field survey. Furthermore, experimental evolution simulating hummingbird-assisted dispersal between flowers revealed that M. reukaufii could evolve rapidly to improve resistance against the priority effect if constantly exposed to A. nectaris-induced pH reduction. Finally, in a field experiment, we found that low nectar pH could reduce nectar consumption by hummingbirds, suggesting functional consequences of the pH-driven priority effect for plant reproduction. Taken together, these results show that it is possible to identify an overarching factor that governs the eco-evolutionary dynamics of priority effects across multiple levels of biological organization.
Traditional T1-S1 Measurement of the Spinal Length on X-ray Images Does Not Correlate With the True Length of the Spine

Background The T1-S1 distance to evaluate spinal length is traditionally measured as a straight line on an anteroposterior radiograph. However, this method may not reflect the true 3-dimensional (3D) spinal length. The objective of the study was to evaluate the difference between the traditional T1-S1 measurement and a 3D reconstruction from standard x-ray imaging. Methods Radiological assessment and 3D reconstruction of spinal length in pediatric patients with various spine deformities. The 3D reconstruction derived from standard biplanar spine x-ray images using a specialized but free available software and calibration device. Direct comparison of length, intraobserver variance for repeated measurements, as well as interobserver correlation for both measurement methods and between different levels of training were evaluated. Furthermore, the influence on spinal length by the degree of spinal deformity as well as other factors was analyzed. Results A total of 39 x-ray images from 35 patients at a mean age of 15.4 years (8.9–26.8 years) were evaluated. There was excellent agreement for intra- and interobserver correlation for both measurement techniques. Spinal length assessed using 3D reconstruction was significantly longer compared with the traditional T1-S1 distance, on average 2.7 cm (0.5–6.1 cm). There was also a significant positive correlation between the maximum extent of the deformity and the difference in spinal length. Conclusions Traditional T1-S1 distance significantly underestimates the true length of the spine. A 3D measurement reflects the real length of the spine more adequately. Clinical Relevance Such information is relevant to the treating spine surgeon when planning or assessing therapeutic measures, especially in advanced deformities. Level of Evidence 4.
Prospective evaluation of intense pulsed light treatment for meibomian gland dysfunction and blepharitis due to ocular rosacea

Ocular rosacea is a common skin condition leading to dry eye that is difficult to manage. To estimate the efficacy and safety of a new intense pulsed light device, Thermaeye Plus, for meibomian gland dysfunction and blepharitis due to ocular rosacea. This prospective, longitudinal study included 74 eyes of 37 consecutive patients with ocular rosacea, with mean age of 45.6 ± 11.7 years. Four consecutive sessions were undertaken, including14 flashes with 10 J/cm2 on the periocular area and facial cheeks on Day 1, 14, 28, and 49. Clinical evaluation was based on: ocular surface disease index (OSDI) and symptom score questionnaires, quality of live and facial severity degree, non-invasive tear meniscus height, non-invasive tear break up time, corneal fluorescein staining and eyelid margin and meibomian gland assessment. Adverse effects on the eye and periocular area, and systemic complications were evaluated. The OSDI questionnaire showed a decrease in symptoms, achieving normal values in 91.9% of patients. The symptom score showed amelioration, with the most significant changes relating to dryness, foreign body sensation, light sensitivity, and pain. Longitudinal analysis showed the most significant improvement between baseline at Day 1 and 49. All eyelid signs improved, most significantly for telangiectasia/vascularity and blepharitis, leading to a 78% clearance of facial rosacea and 81.1% reduction of flushing. In total, 100% of the patients reported an improvement in their quality of life after treatment and 94.6% a very significant improvement (p < 0.001). These results demonstrate that Thermaeye Plus is an effective and safe treatment for ocular rosacea.
Prokaryotic Pangenomes Act as Evolving Ecosystems

Abstract Understanding adaptation to the local environment is a central tenet and a major focus of evolutionary biology. But this is only part of the adaptionist story. In addition to the external environment, one of the main drivers of genome composition is genetic background. In this perspective, I argue that there is a growing body of evidence that intra-genomic selective pressures play a significant part in the composition of prokaryotic genomes and play a significant role in the origin, maintenance and structuring of prokaryotic pangenomes.
Effectiveness of immunological agents in non‐small cell lung cancer

Non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) continues to claim millions of lives worldwide. Although its poor prognosis is largely attributed to the lack of adequate and precise detection technologies, cancer cells’ suppression of the immune system adds on to the difficulty of identifying abnormal NSCLC tumors in their early stages. Therefore, cancer immunotherapy, which activates the immune system and helps it fight tumors, has recently become the most sought‐after technique, especially in the advanced stages of NSCLC, where surgery or chemotherapy may or may not bring about the desired survival benefits in patients.
Testing the conditional mass function of dark matter haloes against numerical N-body simulations

We compare the predicted conditional mass function (CMF) of dark matter halos from two theoretical prescriptions against numerical N-body simulations, both in overdense and underdense regions and at different Eulerian scales ranging from $5$ to $30\,h^{-1}\,$Mpc. In particular, we consider in detail a locally-implemented rescaling of the unconditional mass function (UMF) already discussed in the literature, and also a generalization of the standard rescaling method described in the extended Press-Schechter formalism. First, we test the consistency of these two rescalings by verifying the normalization of the CMF at different scales, and showing that none of the proposed cases provides a normalized CMF. In order to satisfy the normalization condition, we include a modification in the rescaling procedure. After this modification, the resulting CMF generally provides a better description of numerical results. We finally present an analytical fit to the ratio between the CMF and the UMF (also known as the matter-to-halo bias function) in underdense regions, which could be of special interest to speed-up the computation of the halo abundance when studying void statistics. In this case, the CMF prescription based on the locally-implemented rescaling provides a slightly better description of the numerical results when compared to the standard rescaling.
Preliminary design and evaluation of a generic surgical scope adapter

Robotic scope assistant systems are used to visualise and navigate the operative field during a laparoscopic surgery. The objective of this work is to design a surgical scope adapter that enables control of different scope types (zero‐degree, angulated, and articulated), and can be connected to any six degree‐of‐freedom robotic manipulator for usage as a robotic scope assistant system.
Continuum modes of nonlocal field theories

We study a class of nonlocal Lorentzian quantum field theories, where the d’Alembertian operator ◻ is replaced by a non-analytic function of the d’Alembertian, f(◻). This is inspired by the causal set program where such an evolution arises as the continuum limit of a wave equation on causal sets. The spectrum of these theories contains a continuum of massive excitations. This is perhaps the most important feature which leads to distinct/interesting phenomenology. In this paper, we study properties of the continuum massive modes in depth. We derive the path integral formulation of these theories. Meanwhile, this derivation introduces a dual picture in terms of local fields which clearly shows how continuum massive modes of the nonlocal field interact. As an example, we calculate the leading order modification to the Casimir force of a pair of parallel planes. The dual picture formulation opens the way for future developments in the study of nonlocal field theories using tools already available in local quantum field theories.
Prospective RandOmised Trial of Emergency Cardiac Computerised Tomography (PROTECCT)

Objective Many patients presenting with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS) have high-sensitivity cardiac troponin (hs-cTn) concentrations between rule-in and rule-out thresholds and hence need serial testing, which is time consuming. The Prospective RandOmised Trial of Emergency Cardiac Computerised Tomography (PROTECCT) assessed the utility of coronary CT angiography (CCTA) in patients with suspected ACS, non-ischaemic ECG and intermediate initial hs-cTn concentration. Methods Patients were randomised to CCTA-guided management versus standard of care (SOC). The primary outcome was hospital length of stay (LOS). Secondary outcomes included cost of in-hospital stay and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) at 12 months of follow-up. Data are mean (SD); for LOS harmonic means, IQRs are shown. Results 250 (aged 55 (14) years, 25% women) patients were randomised. Harmonic mean (IQR) LOS was 7.53 (6.0–9.6) hours in the CCTA arm and 8.14 (6.3–9.8) hours in the SOC arm (p=0.13). Inpatient cost was £1285 (£2216) and £1108 (£3573), respectively, p=0.68. LOS was shorter in the CCTA group in patients with <25% stenosis, compared with SOC; 6.6 (5.6–7.8) hours vs 7.5 (6.1–9.4) hours, respectively; p=0.021. More referrals for cardiology outpatient clinic review and cardiac CT-related outpatient referrals occurred in the SOC arm (p=0.01). 12-month MACE rates were similar between the two arms (7 (5.6%) in the CCTA arm and 8 (6.5%) in the SOC arm—log-rank p=0.78). Conclusions CCTA did not lead to reduced hospital LOS or cost, largely because these outcomes were influenced by the detection of ≥25% grade stenosis in a proportion of patients. Trial registration number NCT03583320.
The relationship between grammaticality ratings and corpus frequencies: A case study into word order variability in the midfield of German clauses

It is almost a commonplace that word order in the midfield of German clauses is flexible. Although statements to this effect do not claim that “anything goes” (cf. Eisenberg (1994, Ch. 12); Rambow (1994); Muller (1999)), they suggest that word order variability in German clauses is considerably greater than, for example, in Dutch and English ones. The following three constraints on the ordering of argument NPs have figured prominently in the linguistic and psycholinguistic literature (cf. Uszkoreit (1987), Pechmann et al. (1996), Keller (2000)): C1: Pronominal ≺ Non–pronominal C2: Nominative ≺ Non–nominative, and C3: Dative ≺ Accusative (where “≺” means “precedes”). Recently, intuitions about word order in German have been probed in a systematic fashion by Keller (2000). From linguistically untrained native speakers he elicited “graded grammaticality” judgments via a novel technique based on the psychophysical method of Magnitude Estimation (Bard et al. 1996). In one of his experiments, he determined the strengths of C1, C2 and C3 in ditransitive subordinate clauses. None of the three “precedence” constraints turned out to be “absolute” in the sense that their violation gave rise to extremely low acceptability/grammaticality judgments (as low as vi-
KNEMIDOKOPTES MITES AND THEIR EFFECTS ON THE GRIPPING POSITION OF THE FEET OF STELLER'S JAYS (CYANOCITTA STELLERI)

Abstract: Steller's Jays (Cyanocitta stelleri) with swollen legs and feet resembling the signs of scaly leg have been commonly seen around Arcata, California, US. The clinical signs are thought to be caused by knemidokoptic mites, a group of parasites specialized on avian hosts. Between February 2019 and March 2020, we analyzed the long-term database of Steller's Jays collected by Humboldt State University for trends in the prevalence of signs of scaly leg, compared the gripping position in the feet of Steller's Jays with variable signs of this condition as an index of their ability to perch, identified the mites using a partial sequence of the cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene, and examined genetic distances between mites collected from different host species both sequenced in this study and from GenBank. Overall, 27% of jays recorded in the long-term database had shown signs of scaly leg. Jays with signs captured in this study had greater variability in and a reduced degree of contraction in the gripping position of their feet compared to jays without signs, suggesting that infestation may have an impact on the host's ability to perch. The cytochrome oxidase subunit I sequence (578 base pairs) from mites collected from Steller's Jays was compared to sequences from Knemidokoptes jamaicensis, Knemidokoptes derooi, and to unidentified Knemidokoptes spp. collected from different hosts. The mites from Steller's Jays were most closely related to Knemidokoptes jamaicensis but had a relatively high sequence divergence, 7.8%, supporting the possibility that the form infesting these jays may be an undescribed species.
Hubble Space Telescope and VLA Observations of Seyfert 2 Galaxies: The Relationship between Radio Ejecta and the Narrow-Line Region

We present HST/WFPC2 images, in narrowband filters containing the [O III] λ5007 and Hα + [N II] emission lines and their adjacent continua, of a sample of seven Seyfert 2 galaxies selected because they possess either extended emission-line regions in ground-based observations or a hidden broad-line region in polarized light. Six of the galaxies have also been observed with the VLA in order to obtain radio maps of better quality and angular resolution than those in the literature. We find detailed correspondences between features in the radio and emission-line images, clearly indicating strong interactions between the radio jets and the interstellar medium. Such interactions play a major role in determining the morphology of the NLR, as the radio jets sweep up and compress ambient gas, producing ordered structures with enhanced surface brightness in line emission. In at least three galaxies, namely, Mrk 573, ESO 428-G14, and Mrk 34 (and perhaps also NGC 7212), off-nuclear radio lobes coincide with regions of low gaseous excitation (as measured by the [O III]/(Hα + [N II]) ratio). In Mrk 573 and NGC 4388, there is a clear trend for low-brightness ionized gas to be of higher excitation. These results may be understood if radio lobes and regions of high emission-line surface brightness are associated with high gas densities, reducing the ionization parameter. [O III]/(Hα + [N II]) excitation maps reveal bipolar structures that can be interpreted as either the ionization cones expected in the unified scheme or widening, self-excited gaseous outflows. Only NGC 4388 and Mrk 573 show a clearly defined, straight-edged ionization cone.
Temperature dependence of the anisotropy field of L10 FePt near the Curie temperature

Near the Curie temperature, the anisotropy field of magnetically uniaxial L10 FePt is expected to follow the scaling law (1 – T/Tc)β, where T is the temperature and Tc is the Curie temperature. In the literature, β values between 0.36 and 0.65 have been reported. Based on recording measurements and micromagnetic analysis, we show that only the values of β near the low end of the reported range are compatible with the data. We also conclude that thermally activated magnetization reversal at temperatures near Tc cannot be ignored, even at time scales smaller than 1 ns. We demonstrate that thermally activated magnetization reversal at temperatures close to Tc is well described by conventional theory with a frequency factor f0 of the order of 1012 Hz. It is reasoned that the unusually high value for f0 is a consequence of the temperature-induced reduction of the degree of alignment of the micro-spins within the grains.
Fluctuation-driven topological transition of binary condensates in optical lattices

We show the emergence of a third Goldstone mode in binary condensates at the phase-separation in quasi-1D optical lattices. We develop the coupled discrete nonlinear Schr\"odinger equations (DNLSEs) using Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory with Popov approximation in the Bose-Hubbard model to investigate the mode evolution at zero temperature. In particular, as the system is driven from miscible to immiscible phase. We demonstrate that the position swapping of the species in $^{87}$Rb-$^{85}$Rb system is accompanied by a discontinuity in the excitation spectrum. Our results show that in quasi-1D optical lattices, the presence of the fluctuations dramatically change the geometry of the ground state density profile of TBEC.
Optimal control of matrix converters under distorted and unbalanced supply conditions

Un convertisseur Matriciel est un convertisseur a commutation controlee qui utilise une matrice de commutateurs bi-directionnels comme element central. Cette matrice doit creer une tension variable sans contrainte frequentielle. Elle ne doit pas contenir de circuit analogique continu, ni d’element de stockage d’energie. La sortie frequentielle est theoriquement infiniment variable par opposition aux systemes cyclo-convertisseurs. Cette etude porte sur une solution de modulation pour un convertisseur matriciel. Le chapitre 2 presente les techniques de modulation directe et indirecte pour les convertisseurs matriciels. Le chapitre 3 developpe la notion de modele de convertisseur indirect. Ce modele est base sur une representation d’etat decrivant la modulation. Le chapitre 4 presente les differentes variantes de representation d’etat developpees dans cette these. Un modele optimise de commutation est enfin presente. Son developpement repose sur une optimisation par un algorithme des moindres carres.
Convex Ordering for Insurance Preferences

In this article, we study two broad classes of convex order related optimal insurance decision problems, in which the objective function or the premium valuation is a general functional of the expectation, Value-at-Risk and Average Value-at-Risk of the loss variables. These two classes of problems include many existing and contemporary optimal insurance problems as interesting examples being prevalent in the literature. To solve these problems, we apply the Karlin–Novikoff–Stoyan–Taylor multiple-crossing conditions, which is a useful sufficient criterion in the theory of convex ordering, to replace an arbitrary insurance indemnity by a more favorable one in convex order sense. The convex ordering established provides a unifying approach to solve the special cases of the problem classes. We show that the optimal indemnities for these problems in general take the double layer form.
A Pre-Gaia Census of Nearby Stellar Groups

Abstract The nearest, youngest groups of stars to the Sun provide important samples of age-dated stars for studying circumstellar disk evolution, imaged exoplanets, and brown dwarfs. I briefly comment on the status of the known stellar groups within 100 pc: β Pic, AB Dor, UMa, Car-Near, Tuc-Hor and β Tuc nucleus, Hyades, Col, TW Hya, Car, Coma Ber, 32 Ori, η Cha, and χ1 For. I also discuss some poorly characterized groups and “non-groups. ” Grades for 2015 of Pass, Satisfactory, or Fail are assigned to the groups for the purposes of age-dating stars and brown dwarfs. I speculate that Tuc-Hor could have provided a supernova ~60 pc away ~2.2 Myr ago which showered the Earth with traces of 60Fe-bearing dust.
Kinetic limits of dynamical systems

Since the pioneering work of Maxwell and Boltzmann in the 1860s and 1870s, a major challenge in mathematical physics has been the derivation of macroscopic evolution equations from the fundamental microscopic laws of classical or quantum mechanics. Macroscopic transport equations lie at the heart of many important physical theories, including fluid dynamics, condensed matter theory and nuclear physics. The rigorous derivation of macroscopic transport equations is thus not only a conceptual exercise that establishes their consistency with the fundamental laws of physics: the possibility of finding deviations and corrections to classical evolution equations makes this subject both intellectually exciting and relevant in practical applications. The plan of these lectures is to develop a renormalisation technique that will allow us to derive transport equations for the kinetic limits of two classes of simple dynamical systems, the Lorentz gas and kicked Hamiltonians (or linked twist maps). The technique uses the ergodic theory of flows on homogeneous spaces (homogeneous flows for short), and is based on joint work with Andreas Strombergsson.
Review of low-cost sensors for indoor air quality: Features and applications

Abstract Humans spend the majority of their time indoors, where they are potentially exposed to hazardous pollutants. Within this context, over the past few years, there has been an upsurge of low-cost sensors (LCS) for the measurement of indoor air pollutants, motivated both by recent technological advances and by increased awareness of indoor air quality (IAQ) and its potential negative health impacts. Although not meeting the performance requirements for reference regulatory-equivalent monitoring indoors, LCS can provide informative measurements, offering an opportunity for high-resolution monitoring, emission source identification, exposure mitigation and managing IAQ and energy efficiency, among others. This article discusses the strengths and limitations that LCS offer for applications in the field of IAQ monitoring; it provides an overview of existing sensor technologies and gives recommendations for different indoor applications, considering their performance in the complex indoor environment and discussing future trends.