Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic tracing of subpopulation neurons in the prethalamus of mice (Mus musculus)

Genetic labeling based on the Cre/lox reporter system has allowed the creation of fate maps for progenitor cells and their offspring. In the diencephalon, pools of progenitors express the plp transcripts in the zona limitans intrathalamica (ZLI), the basal plate of the diencephalon (bpD), and the posterior part of the hypothalamus. We used plp‐Cre transgenics crossed with either Rosa26‐lox‐lacZ (R26R) or actin‐lox gfp (Z/EG) reporter mice to investigate the progeny of plp‐expressing ventricular cells in the diencephalon. We describe the subpopulations of prethalamic neurons derived from plp‐activated progenitors, their possible migratory routes as development proceeds, and their final positional identity. Neurons derived from plp‐expressing progenitors issued from the ZLI contribute to GABAergic cells in the zona incerta, the subgeniculate nucleus, the ventral lateral geniculate, and the intergeniculate leaflet. Plp+ progenitors in the bpD and posterior hypothalamus appear to generate glutamatergic neurons in the subthalamic nucleus and GABAergic neurons in the mammillary and retromammillary tegmentum derivatives. In all these nuclei the contribution of plp+ progenitors is only partial, illustrating the heterogeneity of origin of neurons in prethalamic and caudal hypothalamic nuclei. J. Comp. Neurol. 512:74–83, 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Dose Makes The Cooperation

Explaining cooperation is one of the greatest challenges for basic scientific research. We proposed an agent-based model to study co-evolution of memory and cooperation. In our model, reciprocal agents with limited memory size play Prisoner's Dilemma Game iteratively. The characteristic of the environment, whether it is threatening or not, is embedded in the payoff matrix. Our findings are as follows. (i) Memory plays a critical role in the protection of cooperation. (ii) In the absence of threat, subsequent generations loose their memory and are consequently invaded by defectors. (iii) In contrast, the presence of an appropriate level of threat triggers the emergence of a self-protection mechanism for cooperation within subsequent generations. On the evolutionary level, memory size acts like an immune response of the population against aggressive defection. (iv) Even more extreme threat results again in defection. Our findings boil down to the following: The dose of the threat makes the cooperation.
Properties of galaxies in Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasar environments at z < 0.2

We analyse the environment of low redshift, z < 0.2, Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasars using the spectral and photometric information of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Third Data Release (SDSS-DR3). We compare quasar neighbourhoods with field and highdensity environments through an analysis on samples of typical galaxies and groups. We compute the surrounding surface number density of galaxies finding that quasar environments systematically avoid high-density regions. Their mean environments correspond to galaxy density enhancements similar to those of typical galaxies. We have also explored several galaxy properties in these environments, such as spectral types, specific star formation rates (SFRs), concentration indexes, colours and active nuclei activity. We find a higher relative fraction of blue galaxies in quasar environments compared to groups and typical galaxy neighbourhoods. Consistent with this picture, the distribution of the concentration index of these galaxies also indicate a larger fraction of late-type objects. By analysing the available information of galaxy spectra we have also studied the distribution of the SFRs of these neighbour galaxies finding that quasar environments are populated by objects with an enhanced star formation activity. An analysis of the relative flux ratios of [O III]λ5700/Hβ and [N II]λ6583/Hα of emission-line galaxies shows no excess of nuclei activity in quasar neighbourhood with respect to the environment of a typical galaxy. We conclude that low-redshift quasar neighbourhoods (r p < 1 h −1 Mpc, � V < 500 km s −1 ) are populated by bluer and more intense star forming galaxies of disc-type morphology than galaxies in groups and in the field. Although star formation activity is thought to be significantly triggered by interactions, we find that quasar fuelling may not require the presence of a close companion galaxy (r p < 100 h −1 kpc, � V < 350 km s −1 ). As a test of the unified active galactic nucleus (AGN) model, we have performed a similar analysis to the neighbours of a sample of active galaxies. The results indicate that these neighbourhoods are comparable to those of quasars giving further support to this unified scenario.
Working Memory Capacity, Attention Control, and Fluid Intelligence

The idea that attention is important to intelligence is not novel. Indeed, Spearman (1927) discussed this issue at length. However, the relationship between attention and intelligence was contemplated even earlier, with some of the first empirical evidence provided by Burt (1909). Binet (1903), the father of intelligence testing, also recognized the importance of attention to general intelligence (Sternberg, 1982). William James (1890/1981), too, wrote that “the number of things we may attend to is altogether indefinite, depending on the power of the individual intellect” (p. 405). However, despite nearly a century of research, the above question still pervades the science of mental ability, and Spearman’s comment
Continuous limits of discrete perimeters

We consider a class of discrete convex functionals which satisfy a (generalized) coarea formula. These functionals, based on submodular interactions, arise in discrete optimization and are known as a large class of problems which can be solved in polynomial time. In particular, some of them can be solved very efficiently by maximal flow algorithms and are quite popular in the image processing community. We study the limit in the continuum of these functionals, show that they always converge to some "crystalline" perimeter/total variation, and provide an almost explicit formula for the limiting functional.
Chemical Enrichment of the Complex Hot ISM of the Antennae Galaxies. II. Physical Properties of the Hot Gas and Supernova Feedback

We investigate the physical properties of the interstellar medium (ISM) in the merging pair of galaxies known as the Antennae (NGC 4038/4039), using the deep co-added ~411 ks Chandra ACIS-S data set. The method of analysis and some of the main results from the spectral analysis, such as metal abundances and their variations from ~0.2 to ~20-30 times solar, are described in Paper I (Baldi et al.). In the present paper we investigate in detail the physics of the hot emitting gas, deriving measures for the hot gas mass (~107 M☉), cooling times (107-108 yr), and pressure (3.5 × 10-11-2.8 × 10-10 dyne cm-2). In at least one of the two nuclei (NGC 4038), the hot gas pressure is significantly higher than the CO pressure, implying that shock waves may be driven into the CO clouds. Comparison of the metal abundances with the average stellar yields predicted by theoretical models of SN explosions points to SNe of Type II as the main contributors of metals to the hot ISM. There is no evidence of any correlation between radio-optical star formation indicators and the measured metal abundances. Although due to uncertainties in the average gas density we cannot exclude that mixing may have played an important role, the short time required to produce the observed metal masses (≲2 Myr) suggests that the correlations are unlikely to have been destroyed by efficient mixing. More likely, a significant fraction of Type II SN ejecta may be in a cool phase, in grains, or escaping in hot winds. In each case, any such fraction of the ejecta would remain undetectable with soft X-ray observations.
Normalidade de variáveis: métodos de verificação e comparação de alguns testes não-paramétricos por simulação Normality of variables: diagnosis methods and comparison of some nonparametric tests by simulation

Background: The main statistical tests have the normality assumption that must be verified before performing the main analyzes. Objective: To review the techniques of testing for normality of data and compare some adherence tests for different true distributions and sample size. Method: Through simulation of five distributions (Normal, t-Student, Chi-Square, Gamma and Exponential) and six sample sizes (10, 30, 50, 100, 500 and 1000) were simulated 5000 samples of each pair sample size-distribution and applied the Chi-square, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Lilliefors, Shapiro-Wilk, Shapiro-Francia, Cramer-von Mises, Anderson-Darling and Jarque-Bera tests. Results: The results show a clear superiority of the Shapiro-Francia and Shapiro-Wilk tests, with percentages of accuracy of 72.41% and 72.15% respectively. Among the worst results we find the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Chi-Square, with percentage of accuracy of 44.78% and 61.58% respectively. Normalidade de variaveis: metodos de verificacao e comparacao de alguns testes nao-parametricos por simulacao Normality of variables: diagnosis methods and comparison of some nonparametric tests by simulation Vanessa Bielefeldt Leotti Torman1,2, Rodrigo Coster2, Joao Riboldi1 Revista HCPA. 2012;32(2):227-234 1Departamento de Estatistica, Instituto de Matematica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, UFRGS. 2Unidade de Bioestatistica, Grupo de Pesquisa e PosGraduacao, Hospital de Clinicas de
Does Type and Severity of Violence Affect the Help-Seeking Behaviors of Victims of Intimate Partner Violence in Nigeria?

Using data from the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (N = 6,013) and applying multinomial logit models, we examined whether type and severity of intimate partner violence (IPV) influence victims’ help-seeking behaviors. Results showed that about 65% of women did not seek help after experiencing IPV. However, most women who sought help did so from informal sources only (31.3%), compared with formal sources (1.9%). Type and severity of violence were significant predictors of the help-seeking behaviors of Nigerian women. Women who experienced severe forms of physical and emotional violence were more likely to seek help from formal and informal support services, than not seeking help. Sexual violence was not a significant predictor of women’s help-seeking behaviors. It is important to educate women on the relevance of seeking help, especially from formal support services after experiencing IPV.
Optimum energy allocation for massive spread-spectrum multiple access in networks of uncoordinated energy-limited terminals

This paper derives the energy allocation policy that maximizes the aggregate spectral efficiency of an uncoordinated spread-spectrum multiple access network operating in the large-user regime and subject to a long-term per-user average energy constraint. Focusing on a network of autonomous energy-limited devices, we consider that the receiver operates under noise-dominant conditions and that every transmitter is able to estimate accurately its own slowly time-varying channel with no feedback from the receiver. The aggregate spectral efficiency is derived in terms of the statistical distribution of the channel power gains and of the Packet Error Rate (PER) curve of the common modulation and error correcting code employed by all users. Using Variational Calculus, we obtain a closed-form expression for the optimum energy profile at low average Es/N0 and prove that the aggregate spectral efficiency converges to a non-vanishing value if the user population is large and terminals implement an uncoordinated admission control based on the known PER curve.
Development and Evaluation of a Miniaturized Taste Sensor Chip

A miniaturized taste sensor chip was designed for use in a portable-type taste sensing system. The fabricated sensor chip (40 mm × 26 mm × 2.2 mm) has multiple taste-sensing sites consisting of a poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) hydrogel with KCl as the electrolyte layer for stability of the membrane potential and artificial lipid membranes as the taste sensing elements. The sensor responses to the standard taste substances showed high accuracy and good reproducibility, which is comparable with the performance of the sensor probe of the commercialized taste sensing system. Thus, the fabricated taste sensor chip could be used as a key element for the realization of a portable-type taste sensing system.
Pelaksanaan pentaksiran berasaskan sekolah (PBS) bagi Mata Pelajaran Sains di Sekolah Kebangsaan Daerah Pontian, Johor

Pentaksiran berasaskan sekolah (PBS) merupakan satu pentaksiran yang bersifat holistik iaitu menilai aspek kognitif (intelek), afektif (emosi dan rohani) dan psikomotor (jasmani) selaras dengan Falsafah Pendidikan Kebangsaan dan Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR). Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji pelaksanaan PBS bagi mata pelajaran sains di sekolah kebangsaan daerah Pontian, Johor. Elemen yang akan dikaji ialah tahap kesediaan guru dan masalah yang dihadapi dalam pelaksanaan PBS. Jenis persampelan yang digunakan adalah persampelan rawak mudah dimana sampel kajian adalah seramai 108 orang guru-guru yang terdiri daripada guru yang mengajar pelajar Tahun 1, Tahun 2 dan Tahun 3 dari 10 buah sekolah yang telah dipilih. Instrumen kajian yang digunakan adalah borang soal selidik yang akan diedarkan kepada responden. Data yang telah dikumpul akan dianalisis dengan menggunakan perisian Statistical Packages For Social Science (SPSS). Data dianalisis dengan menggunakan statistik deskriptif (skor min dan sisihan piawai) dan statistik inferensi (Ujian Mann Whitney U dan Ujian Kruskal Wallis). Dapatan kajian menunjukkan guru-guru telah bersedia untuk melaksanakan PBS di mana skor min setiap elemen adalah tinggi iaitu pengetahuan (3.88), kemahiran (3.65), sikap (3.97) serta peralatan dan kemudahan (3.84). Manakala skor min bagi masalah yang dihadapi oleh guru sewaktu melaksanakan PBS pula adalah tinggi iaitu 3.70 yang mana menunjukkan guru-guru berhadapan dengan masalah yang sama. Ujian hipotesis menunjukkan tidak terdapat perbezaan yang signifikan antara tahap kesediaan oleh guru mengikut jantina dan umur dalam pelaksanaan PBS. Kesimpulannya, guru-guru telah bersedia untuk melaksanakan PBS di sekolah kebangsaan.
High-School Teachers’ Beliefs about Effort and Their Attitudes toward Struggling and Smart Students in a Confucian Society

Previous studies conducted in Western societies showed that instructors’ beliefs about intellectual ability affected their attitudes toward students. However, in many East Asian societies influenced by Confucian culture, teachers not only hold beliefs of ability but also two kinds of beliefs about effort: obligation-oriented belief (i.e., believing that effort-making is a student’s role obligation) and improvement-oriented belief (i.e., believing that effort can conquer the limitations of one’s ability). This study aimed to investigate the relationships between teachers’ effort beliefs and their attitudes toward favoritism, praise, and expectations toward struggling and smart students. The participants were 151 Taiwanese high-school teachers. Results of Structure Equation Modeling showed that (1) teachers’ obligation-oriented belief about effort was positively correlated with their favoritism, praise, short-term and long-term expectations of struggling students, but negatively correlated with their favoritism and praise of smart students, (2) teachers’ improvement-orientated belief about effort was negatively correlated with their short-term expectation of smart students and favoritism of struggling students, but positively correlated with their praise of smart students, and (3) the entity theory of intelligence was negatively correlated with favoritism and praise of struggling students, but positively correlated with favoritism of smart students. The theoretical and cultural implications are discussed.
Annual Hospital Volume of High Dose Interleukin-2 and Inpatient Mortality in Melanoma and Renal Cell Carcinoma Patients

Background Immunotherapy using high dose interleukin-2 (HD IL2) in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and melanoma is associated with severe toxicities. The association between annual hospital volume of HD IL2 and inpatient mortality is not well studied. In this study we aim to quantify the impact of annual hospital volume of HD IL2 on inpatient mortality using National Inpatient Sample (NIS) data. Methods We did a cross-sectional study using NIS, one of the largest inpatient datasets in United States, from 2003 to 2011. Patients with melanoma and RCC receiving HD IL2 were identified by ICD9 procedure code 00.15. The primary outcome was inpatient mortality. Using Joinpoint regression, which detects change in trend of inpatient mortality with change in annual volume, the hospitals were classified in three volume categories (low: 1–40, medium: 41–120, high: >120). Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify predictors of inpatient mortality controlling for confounders. Results From 2003 to 2011, 29,532 patients with RCC or melanoma who received HD IL2 were identified, and 124 died during the hospitalization (0.4%). The hospitals with low, medium and high annual volume had significant difference in inpatient mortality (0.83%, 0.29% and 0.13% respectively, p = 0.0003). On multivariate analysis, low volume hospitals were associated with significantly higher odds of inpatient mortality (OR 6.1, 95% CI 1.6–23.2, p = 0.003) as compared to high volume hospitals. Additionally, the hospitals with annual volume of 1–20 had even higher rates (1.31% vs. 0.13%, p<0.0001) and multivariate odds (OR 8.9, 95% CI 2.4–33.2, p = 0.0006) of inpatient mortality as compared to high volume hospitals. Conclusions Lower annual hospital volume of HD IL2 is associated with worse outcomes. Annual hospital volume of 1–40 and 1–20 treatments per year is associated with 6 and 9 times higher odds of inpatient mortality respectively as compared to high volume hospitals. Our findings provide preliminary evidence for a volume-outcome relationship for RCC and melanoma patients undergoing HD IL2 treatment. They support future volume-outcome analyses in relation to other anti-cancer therapies that require special training and expertise.
Multimodal representations during an inquiry problem-solving activity in a Year 6 science class: A case study investigating cooperation, physiological arousal and belief states

Teaching students to use and interpret different representational tools is critically important if they are to be scientifically literate, to understand how scientific ideas and concepts are represented and to appreciate how scientists think and act. Moreover, students not only need to be competent at using and explaining representations and learning new representations quickly but they also need to have opportunities to work cooperatively with others as it is through interactions between learners, tools and the environment that learning occurs. The current case study (part of a larger study) aimed to: (a) identify the effects of different teacher-introduced representational tools on students’ conceptual understandings, dialogic processes, motivation and learning; (b) examine the representational tools used by students during their inquiry science; and (c) examine the physiological states indicative of engagement and cooperation during learning activities. Prior to and on completion of the curriculum unit, participants completed a series of measures to assess actual as well as self-perceived ability in science. Students also wore wireless wristbands to measure autonomic arousal level that were analysed to assess the level of synchrony in physiological states between children. The results showed that the teacher successfully used embodied representations to engage the students in the science unit and maintained their focus in the cooperative groups by using language that encouraged on-going participation in the task. In turn, the students remained on-task and the majority of the language they employed was used to construct and communicate their scientific understanding to others. This high-level common engagement during whole class activities and student-centred learning during the cooperative group activities were also reflected in the physiological measures of synchrony between students. By integrating the video and biometric data with the data from the individual assessments, we construct a rich picture of relationship between the teacher’s use of multimodal representations and cooperative small groups with the students’ use of scientific language, physiological engagement and their beliefs and attitudes towards science.
Becoming men: Gender, disability, and transitioning to adulthood

Children and youth with progressive conditions are living longer, and there is increased interest in designing programs that will assist them with “transitioning” to adulthood. Almost none of the transitions research to date, however, has attended to the experiences of disabled boys in “becoming men,” nor has there been critical conceptual work problematizing notions of “normal” adulthood or theorizing the complex, diverse, and gendered experiences of transitioning. In this Canadian study, we investigated the intersectionality of gender, disability, and emerging adulthood with 15 young men with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Participants created audio diaries and photographs that were explored in in-depth interviews. Using a Bourdieusian lens and Arthur Frank’s notion of the narrative habitus, we examined how participants re/negotiated identities in everyday practices. Our analysis suggested that disability, masculinities, and generational (life stage) identities intersected through “narratives of nondifference,” wherein participants worked to establish identities as typical “guys. ” Within limited fields of school and work, participants distanced themselves from the label of “disabled” and discussed their successes and challenges in terms of normative developmental trajectories. We suggest that the pursuit of “normal” is reproduced and reinforced in health and social programs and closes off other narratives and possibilities.
Pulsations of massive ZZ Ceti stars with carbon/oxygen and oxygen/neon cores

We explore the adiabatic pulsational properties of massive white dwarf stars with hydrogen-rich envelopes and oxygen/neon and carbon/oxygen cores. To this end, we compute the cooling of massive white dwarf models for both core compositions taking into account the evolutionary history of the progenitor stars and the chemical evolution caused by time-dependent element diffusion. In particular, for the oxygen/neon models we adopt the chemical profile resulting from repeated carbon-burning shell flashes expected in very massive white dwarf progenitors. For carbon/oxygen white dwarfs we consider the chemical profiles resulting from phase separation upon crystallization. For both compositions we also take into account the effects of crystallization on the oscillation eigenmodes. We find that the pulsational properties of oxygen/neon white dwarfs are noticeably different from those made of carbon/oxygen, thus making asteroseismological techniques a promising way to distinguish between the two types of stars and, hence, to obtain valuable information about their progenitors.
Synthesis, Biological Evaluation and Molecular Docking Studies of 6-Aryl-2-Styrylquinazolin-4(3H)-Ones

Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling of 6-bromo-2-styrylquinazolin-4(3H)-ones with arylboronic acids afforded a series of novel 6-aryl-2-styrylquinazolin-4(3H)-ones. These compounds were evaluated for potential anticancer properties against the human renal (TK-10), melanoma (UACC-62) and breast cancer (MCF-7) cell lines. Their antimicrobial properties were also evaluated against six Gram-positive and four Gram-negative bacteria, as well as two strains of fungi. Molecular docking studies (in silico) were conducted on compounds 5a, b, d and 6a, b, d–f to recognize the hypothetical binding motif of the title compounds within the active site of the dihydrofolate reductase and thymidylate synthase enzymes.