julilili42/papers huggingface dataset:
Isospin-violating strong decays of scalar single-heavy tetraquarks
2016-11-14

We present a study of the isospin-violating one-pion strong decays of single\\nheavy tetraquarks , , and with\\nspin-parity . We assume that the tetraquarks have the configuration\\nof a color diquark and a antidiquark. Three mechanisms of isospin violation can\\ncontribute to the decay rate: (1) mixing of the and tetraquark currents, (2) an explicit quark mass\\ndifference in the quark diagrams describing the corresponding decay transitions\\nand (3) mixing in the final state. Our main results are: (1) It is\\nquite likely that the investigated tetraquark states are isosinglet states with\\na small admixture of an isotriplet component; (2) The first isospin-breaking\\nmechanism affects the decay rater more significantly than the others; (3) Our\\ncalculations contain a size parameter , characterizing the\\ndistribution of the quarks in the tetraquark state . Absolute decay rates\\ndepend very much on the choice of , varied from 1 to 2 GeV,\\nreflecting the compactness of the multiquark system.\\n
Cognitive Performance Patterns in Healthy Individuals with Substantia Nigra Hyperechogenicity and Early Parkinson’s Disease
2016-11-14

<b>Introduction:</b> Hyperechogenicity of the substantia nigra (SN+) is a risk marker for Parkinson's disease (PD) which can be detected before the diagnosis. In healthy individuals, SN+ has been associated with slight deficits in specific cognitive functions, suggesting cognitive impairment as a possible pre-diagnostic marker for PD. However, the pattern of cognitive deficits associated with SN+ has not yet been compared with those present in PD. <b>Methods:</b> Data of 262 healthy individuals with normal echogenicity (SN-) and 48 healthy individuals with SN+ were compared with 82 early stage PD patients using the "Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's disease" test battery. First, the test clusters (factors) were identified using a principal component analysis (PCA). Mean group performance of cognitive tests belonging to distinct factors, according to the PCA, and single subtest performances were compared using analyses of variance. Second, the number of individuals with abnormal cognitive performances (<i>z</i>-score < -1.0) were compared between groups. <b>Results:</b> Verbal memory, semantic and executive function, and praxis were identified as components of cognitive performances. The SN+ group performed significantly worse than the SN- group in tests assessing semantic and executive function, with a non-significant decrease in verbal memory. On the subtest level, individuals of the SN+ group scored significantly lower than the SN- group on the Boston Naming Test (BNT; <i>p</i> = 0.008). In all subtests, the percentages of PD patients with values below the cut-off for abnormal performance were higher than in the SN- group. Moreover, more individuals from the SN+ group scored below the cut-off in the BNT (SN- = 8.4%, SN+ = 20.8%, <i>p</i> = 0.01) and TMT-B (SN- = 6.9%, SN+ = 16.7%, <i>p</i> = 0.02), compared to the SN- group. <b>Conclusion:</b> This study confirms poorer performance of healthy individuals with SN+ compared to SN- in specific cognitive domains. However, against the SN- group, the cognitive profile of the SN+ group was not fully consistent with the profile of early PD patients. Our data argues that cognitive impairment associated with SN+ might differ slightly from that seen in early PD. Compensational mechanisms in the early phases of neurodegeneration, and the fact that only a subgroup of SN+ will develop PD, may partly explain these differences.
Normalizing the Normalizers: Comparing and Extending Network Normalization Schemes
2016-11-14

Normalization techniques have only recently begun to be exploited in supervised learning tasks. Batch normalization exploits mini-batch statistics to normalize the activations. This was shown to speed up training and result in better models. However its success has been very limited when dealing with recurrent neural networks. On the other hand, layer normalization normalizes the activations across all activities within a layer. This was shown to work well in the recurrent setting. In this paper we propose a unified view of normalization techniques, as forms of divisive normalization, which includes layer and batch normalization as special cases. Our second contribution is the finding that a small modification to these normalization schemes, in conjunction with a sparse regularizer on the activations, leads to significant benefits over standard normalization techniques. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our unified divisive normalization framework in the context of convolutional neural nets and recurrent neural networks, showing improvements over baselines in image classification, language modeling as well as super-resolution.
PROTOSTELLAR OUTFLOWS AND RADIATIVE FEEDBACK FROM MASSIVE STARS. II. FEEDBACK, STAR-FORMATION EFFICIENCY, AND OUTFLOW BROADENING
2016-11-15

ABSTRACT We perform two-dimensional axially symmetric radiation hydrodynamic simulations to assess the impact of outflows and radiative force feedback from massive protostars by varying when the protostellar outflow starts, and to determine the ratio of ejection to accretion rates and the strength of the wide-angle disk wind component. The star-formation efficiency, i.e., the ratio of final stellar mass to initial core mass, is dominated by radiative forces and the ratio of outflow to accretion rates. Increasing this ratio has three effects. First, the protostar grows slower with a lower luminosity at any given time, lowering radiative feedback. Second, bipolar cavities cleared by the outflow become larger, further diminishing radiative feedback on disk and core scales. Third, the higher momentum outflow sweeps up more material from the collapsing envelope, decreasing the protostar's potential mass reservoir via entrainment. The star-formation efficiency varies with the ratio of ejection to accretion rates from 50% in the case of very weak outflows to as low as 20% for very strong outflows. At latitudes between the low-density bipolar cavity and the high-density accretion disk, wide-angle disk winds remove some of the gas, which otherwise would be part of the accretion flow onto the disk; varying the strength of these wide-angle disk winds, however, alters the final star-formation efficiency by only ±6%. For all cases, the opening angle of the bipolar outflow cavity remains below 20° during early protostellar accretion phases, increasing rapidly up to 65° at the onset of radiation pressure feedback.
Diagnostic Value of a Tablet-Based Drawing Task for Discrimination of Patients in the Early Course of Alzheimer’s Disease from Healthy Individuals
2016-11-15

There is a considerable delay in the diagnosis of dementia, which may reduce the effectiveness of available treatments. Thus, it is of great interest to develop fast and easy to perform, non-invasive and non-expensive diagnostic measures for the early detection of cognitive impairment and dementia. Here we investigate movement kinematics between 20 patients with early dementia due to Alzheimer's disease (eDAT), 30 patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), and 20 cognitively healthy control (HC) individuals while copying a three-dimensional house using a digitizing tablet. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves and logistic regression analyzes have been conducted to explore whether alterations in movement kinematics could be used to discriminate patients with aMCI and eDAT from healthy individuals. Time-in-air (i.e., transitioning from one stroke to the next without touching the surface) differed significantly between patients with aMCI, eDAT, and HCs demonstrating an excellent sensitivity and a moderate specificity to discriminate aMCI subjects from normal elderly and an excellent sensitivity and specificity to discriminate patients affected by mild Alzheimer's disease from healthy individuals. Time-on-surface (i.e., time while stylus is touching the surface) differed only between HCs and patients with eDAT but not between HCs and patients with aMCI. Furthermore, total-time (i.e., time-in-air plus time-on-surface) did not differ between patients with aMCI and early dementia due to AD. Modern digitizing devices offer the opportunity to measure a broad range of visuoconstructive abilities that may be used as a fast and easy to perform screening instrument for the early detection of cognitive impairment and dementia in primary care.
OPA1 haploinsufficiency induces a BNIP3‐dependent decrease in mitophagy in neurons: relevance to Dominant Optic Atrophy
2016-11-15

Abstract Dominant optic atrophy (DOA) is because of mutations in the mitochondrial protein OPA1. The disease principally affects retinal ganglion cells, whose axons degenerate leading to vision impairments, and sometimes other neuronal phenotypes. The exact mechanisms underlying DOA pathogenesis are not known. We previously demonstrated that the main role of OPA1, as a mitochondrial fusogenic and anti‐apoptotic protein, are inhibited by interaction with the stress inducible pro‐apoptotic BNIP3 protein. Because BNIP3 was recently reported to participate in autophagy and mitophagy, we tested the involvement of these processes in DOA pathogenesis. Using an in vitro neuronal model of DOA, we identified a BNIP3 down‐regulation that reduced autophagy and mitophagy. Restoring BNIP3 had a biphasic effect, first rescuing autophagy and mitophagy levels but later leading to cell death. Similarly, in an in vivo mouse model of DOA, we showed that BNIP3 levels are decreased in young adult mice and increase to normal levels upon aging, paralleling disease progression. Altogether, our results indicate that the relationship between OPA1 and BNIP3 may have important bearings on DOA pathogenesis. image
Evaluation of Factors Limiting Corneal Donation
2016-11-15

BACKGROUND This study aimed to investigate factors limiting corneal donation at the University Hospital Tübingen. MATERIAL AND METHODS We retrospectively studied all hospital deaths from January 2012 to December 2015, considering each deceased patient as a potential corneal donor. During this period an ophthalmic resident managed corneal donor procurement on a full-time basis. Various factors limiting corneal donation were examined. RESULTS Among the 3412 deaths, 2937 (86.1%) displayed nonfulfillment of corneal donation. Consent for corneal donation was obtained in 475 cases (13.9%). The mean annual corneal donation rate was 13.9 donors per 100 deaths (range: 11.2-17.8). The leading causes of nonfulfillment of corneal donations were refusal to donate (49.8%, 1698 cases) and medical contraindications (23.6%, 805 cases). After next-of-kin interview of 2173 potential donors (109 potential donors were excluded because of logistical problems), willingness to participate in corneal donation was present in 475 cases (21.9%), whereas in 1698 cases (78.1%) corneal donation was refused. CONCLUSIONS Our study showed refusal to donate is the most important factor limiting corneal donation. It seems that increasing the knowledge of people about corneal donation through public education and media are necessary to address the corneal shortage.
The Reciprocal Principle of Selectand-Selector-Systems in Supramolecular Chromatography †
2016-11-15

In selective chromatography and electromigration methods, supramolecular recognition of selectands and selectors is due to the fast and reversible formation of association complexes governed by thermodynamics. Whereas the selectand molecules to be separated are always present in the mobile phase, the selector employed for the separation of the selectands is either part of the stationary phase or is added to the mobile phase. By the reciprocal principle, the roles of selector and selectand can be reversed. In this contribution in honor of Professor Stig Allenmark, the evolution of the reciprocal principle in chromatography is reviewed and its advantages and limitations are outlined. Various reciprocal scenarios, including library approaches, are discussed in efforts to optimize selectivity in separation science.
Labrets in Africa and Amazonia: medical implications and cultural determinants
2016-11-15

Summary The custom of wearing labrets has a long tradition. Labrets appeared independently several thousand years ago in various culture groups in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. Today, apart from diverse body modifications as increasingly practiced in western civilisations, lip plates and plugs are found among a small number of tribal groups only in Africa and Amazonia. We summarise the history of labrets in different societies, describe medical consequences of wearing lip plates and plugs for jaws and teeth and address relevant cultural issues.
Measuring and interpreting sexual selection metrics: evaluation and guidelines
2016-11-16

Summary Routine assessments of overall sexual selection, including comparisons of its direction and intensity between sexes or species, rely on summary metrics that capture the essence of sexual selection. Nearly all currently employed metrics require population‐wide estimates of individual mating success and reproductive success. The resulting sexual selection metrics, however, can heavily and systematically vary with the chosen approaches in terms of sampling, measurement, and analysis. Our review illustrates this variation, using the Bateman gradient, a particularly prominent sexual selection metric. It represents the selection gradient on mating success and – given the latter's pivotal role in defining sexual selection – reflects a trait‐independent integrative proxy for the maximum strength of sexual selection. Drawing from a recent meta‐analysis, we evaluate potential biases arising from study design, data collection and parameter estimation, and provide suggestions to mitigate such biases in future studies. With respect to study design, we argue that currently almost inexistent manipulative studies must complement the dominating correlative studies to inform us about causality in sexual selection. With respect to data collection, we outline how different measures of mating and reproductive success affect the components of sexual (and natural) selection that are reflected in standard summary metrics. With respect to parameter estimation, we show the potential impact of decisions about data inclusion and the chosen quantitative approach on inferences of sexual selection and its sex difference. We expect this meta‐analytical review to aid future studies in providing less biased and more informative estimates of sexual selection.
Resources of Grandparents: Educational Outcomes Across Three Generations in Europe and Israel
2016-11-16

Abstract Educational attainment depends on parents' material and cultural resources. In many families, the grandparents also provide resources that directly or indirectly support their children's educational careers. That is why we applied a multigenerational view and tested if and under which conditions the resources of grandparents are relevant for the educational outcomes of their grandchildren. Using data from the fifth wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe ( N = 27,447), we examined the association between the education of children and the resources of their grandparents. The results show that the impact of grandparental resources is not generally negligible and not entirely mediated by the parental generation. The resources of the grandparents can be used as a substitute for a lack of parental resources. In addition, the “grandparent effect” also differs across countries, indicating that certain welfare state provisions seem to enhance or attenuate the relevance of grandparents' resources.
Acoustic and visual courtship traits in two sympatric marine Gobiidae species – Pomatoschistus microps and Pomatoschistus minutus
2016-11-16

Divergence in courtship traits across species can evolve as adaptations to different environments, and also through avoidance of reproductive interference and character displacement. Differences may also be explained by phylogenetic relationships. We compared different courtship traits, including male courtship sounds, in two sympatric Pomatoschistus species. Both species are characterised by having male and female courtship, and paternal care of eggs in nests under mussel shells and rocks. In addition to presenting novel observations, we reviewed the literature on courtship traits for both species and complemented it with new observations. We found that courting males of the common goby P. microps sing louder and produce sounds of shorter duration than males of the sand goby P. minutus. Furthermore, males of P. microps swim faster towards females during courtship than males of P. minutus. The eyes of P. minutus females turn black during courtship attempts, whereas this is not the case for females of P. microps. Species-specific differences in courtship sounds and behavior may lead to different susceptibility of the two species to environmental change such as noise pollution and turbidity.
Surface-enhanced infrared absorption studies towards a new optical biosensor
2016-11-16

Reflectometric interference spectroscopy (RIfS), which is well-established in the visual regime, measures the optical thickness change of a sensitive layer caused, e.g., by binding an analyte. When operated in the mid-infrared range the sensor provides additional information via weak absorption spectra (fingerprints). The originally poor spectra are magnified by surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA). This is demonstrated using the broad complex fluid water band at 3300 cm −1 , which is caused by superposition of symmetric, antisymmetric stretching vibration, and the first overtone of the bending vibration under the influence of H-bonds and Fermi resonance effect. The results are compared with a similar experiment performed with an ATR (attenuated total reflectance) set-up.
Decadal resolution record of Oman margin upwelling indicatespersistent solar forcing of the Indian summer monsoon after theearly Holocene summer insolation maximum
2016-11-16

Abstract. The Indian summer monsoon (ISM) brings most of the annual precipitation to the densely populated region in southern Asia. For the agricultural development and economic prosperity of the region, it is therefore vital to assess the variability of the monsoon system on societal relevant decadal- to centennial time scales. This might help to better understand how potential driving forces might be controlling ISM variability and how it might develop under future climate scenarios. Here we present a study of a sediment core from the northern Oman margin, revealing early- to mid Holocene ISM conditions on a near 20-year resolution. We assess multiple independent proxies indicative of sea surface temperatures (SST) during the upwelling season together with bottom water conditions. We use geochemical parameters, transfer functions of planktic foraminiferal assemblages and Mg/Ca paleothermometry and find evidence corroborating previous studies that upwelling intensity varies significantly in coherence to solar sunspot cycles. The dominant ~80–90-year Gleissberg cycle was apparently also affecting bottom water oxygen conditions. Although the interval from 8.4 to 5.8 ka B.P. is relatively short, the gradually decreasing trend of summer monsoon conditions was interrupted by short events of intensified ISM conditions. Results from both independent SST proxies are linked to phases of weaker OMZ conditions and enhanced carbonate preservation. This indicates that atmospheric forcing was intimately linked to bottom water properties and state of the OMZ on decadal time scales.
Cross-generational smart environment acceptance
2016-11-16

More than 95 million people in the European Union (EU28) are aged 65 years or above. How could smart environments support nearly a fifth of the European population to stay active, healthy and independent?
Modeling Omitted and Not-Reached Items in IRT Models
2016-11-17

Item nonresponse is a common problem in educational and psychological assessments. The probability of unplanned missing responses due to omitted and not-reached items may stochastically depend on unobserved variables such as missing responses or latent variables. In such cases, missingness cannot be ignored and needs to be considered in the model. Specifically, multidimensional IRT models, latent regression models, and multiple-group IRT models have been suggested for handling nonignorable missing responses in latent trait models. However, the suitability of the particular models with respect to omitted and not-reached items has rarely been addressed. Missingness is formalized by response indicators that are modeled jointly with the researcher’s target model. We will demonstrate that response indicators have different statistical properties depending on whether the items were omitted or not reached. The implications of these differences are used to derive a joint model for nonignorable missing responses with ability to appropriately account for both omitted and not-reached items. The performance of the model is demonstrated by means of a small simulation study.
Entropy-Based Experimental Design for Optimal Model Discrimination in the Geosciences
2016-11-17

Choosing between competing models lies at the heart of scientific work, and is a frequent motivation for experimentation. Optimal experimental design (OD) methods maximize the benefit of experiments towards a specified goal. We advance and demonstrate an OD approach to maximize the information gained towards model selection. We make use of so-called model choice indicators, which are random variables with an expected value equal to Bayesian model weights. Their uncertainty can be measured with Shannon entropy. Since the experimental data are still random variables in the planning phase of an experiment, we use mutual information (the expected reduction in Shannon entropy) to quantify the information gained from a proposed experimental design. For implementation, we use the Preposterior Data Impact Assessor framework (PreDIA), because it is free of the lower-order approximations of mutual information often found in the geosciences. In comparison to other studies in statistics, our framework is not restricted to sequential design or to discrete-valued data, and it can handle measurement errors. As an application example, we optimize an experiment about the transport of contaminants in clay, featuring the problem of choosing between competing isotherms to describe sorption. We compare the results of optimizing towards maximum model discrimination with an alternative OD approach that minimizes the overall predictive uncertainty under model choice uncertainty.