Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Quantity Discrimination in Trained Lizards (Podarcis sicula)

Quantitative abilities have been reported in many animal species. Two main methods have been extensively used: spontaneous choice tests and training procedures. A recent study showed that ruin lizards are capable of spontaneously discriminating between the surface area of two food items of different size, but failed when food was presented in sets of discrete items differing in number. In the present study, we used a training procedure to further investigate quantitative abilities in ruin lizards. Subjects were presented with two sets of yellow disks differing either in number (Experiment 1) or in area (Experiment 2) and were trained on different discriminations of increasing difficulty (1 vs. 4, 2 vs. 4, and 2 vs. 3). Results showed that lizards were more accurate in discriminating sets of discrete items differing in number than the area of two individual items, in contrast to what had earlier been observed in spontaneous choice tests. Although we cannot exclude other factors that affected the performance of ruin lizards, the poor accuracy here observed in both experiments might reflect a true limit in lizards’ quantitative abilities.
An Electronic Publication Dedicated to Early Stellar Evolution and Molecular Clouds Abstracts of Recently Accepted Papers Dust Extinction and Molecular Cloud Structure: L977 Disk Mass Limits and Lifetimes of Externally Irradiated Young Stellar Objects Embed- Ded in the Orion Nebula

We report results of a near–infrared imaging survey of L977, a dark cloud in Cygnus seen in projection against the plane of the Milky Way. We use measurements of the near–infrared color excess and positions of the 1628 brightest stars in our survey to measure directly dust extinction through the cloud following the method described by Lada et al. (1994). We spatially convolve the individual extinction measurements with a square filter 90 in size to construct a large–scale map of extinction in the cloud. We integrate over this map to derive a total mass of M L977 = (660 ± 30) (D/500pc) 2 M and, via a comparison of source counts with predictions of a galactic model, estimate a distance to L977 of 500 ± 100 pc. We find a correlation between the measured dispersion in our extinction determinations and the extinction which is very similar to that found for the dark cloud IC 5146 in a previous study. We interpret this as evidence for the presence of structure on scales smaller than the 90 resolution of our extinction map. To further investigate the structure of the cloud we construct the frequency distribution of the 1628 individual extinction measurements in the L977 cloud. The shape of the distribution is similar to that of the IC 5146 cloud. Monte Carlo modeling of this distribution suggests that between 2 < A V < 40 mag (or roughly 1 < r < 0.1 pc) the material inside L977 is characterized by a density profile ρ (r) ∝ r −2. Direct measurement of the radial profile of a portion of the cloud confirms this result. At the lower galactic latitude of L977, we find both the mean and dispersion of the infrared colors of field stars to be larger than observed toward IC 5146. This produces an increase of about a factor of 2 in the minimum or threshold value of extinction that can be reliably measured toward L977 with this technique. Nevertheless the accuracy in an extinction map pixel is not significantly different toward L977 due to the increased number of field stars at this latitude. We also find an increase in the number of detected giant stars at the lower galactic latitude of the survey by almost a factor of two. Most of these excess stars suffer extraneous extinction and are probably red giants seen along the disc of the Milky Way …
Expression of the Tumor Suppressor Gene ARHI in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Is Associated with Increased Expression of p21WAF1/CIP1 and Prolonged Progression-Free Survival

Purpose: ARHI, an imprinted putative tumor suppressor gene, is expressed in normal ovarian epithelial cells, but its expression is down-regulated or lost in most ovarian cancer cell lines. Reexpression of ARHI in cancer cells induces p21WAF1/CIP1, down-regulates cyclin D1 promoter activity and inhibits growth in cell culture and in heterografts. To determine the relevance of these observations to clinical cancer, we have now measured ARHI expression in normal, benign and malignant ovarian tissues using immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization. Experimental Design: Paraffin embedded tissues from 7 normal ovaries, 22 cystadenomas and 42 borderline lesions were analyzed using standard immunoperoxidase and in situ hybridization techniques to assess ARHI expression. In addition, immunohistochemistry against ARHI was performed on a tissue microarray containing 441 consecutive cases of ovarian carcinoma. Results: Strong ARHI expression was found in normal ovarian surface epithelial cells, cysts and follicles using immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization. Reduced ARHI expression was observed in tumors of low malignant potential as well as in invasive cancers. ARHI expression was down-regulated in 63% of invasive ovarian cancer specimens and could not be detected in 47%. When immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization were compared, ARHI protein expression could be down-regulated in the presence of ARHI mRNA. ARHI expression was correlated with expression of p21WAF1/CIP1 (P = 0.0074) but not with cyclin D1 and associated with prolonged disease free survival (P = 0.001). On multivariate analysis, ARHI expression, grade and stage were independent prognostic factors. ARHI expression did not correlate with overall survival. Conclusions: Persistence of ARHI expression in epithelial ovarian cancers correlated with prolonged disease free survival and expression of the cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor p21WAF1/CIP1.
Research Paper: Measuring Clinical Information Technology in the ICU Setting: Application in a Quality Improvement Collaborative

OBJECTIVE Few instruments are available to measure the performance of intensive care unit (ICU) clinical information systems. Our objectives were: 1) to develop a survey-based metric that assesses the automation and usability of an ICU's clinical information system; 2) to determine whether higher scores on this instrument correlate with improved outcomes in a multi-institution quality improvement collaborative. DESIGN This is a cross-sectional study of the medical directors of 19 Michigan ICUs participating in a state-wide quality improvement collaborative designed to reduce the rate of catheter-related blood stream infections (CRBSI). Respondents completed a survey assessing their ICU's information systems. MEASUREMENTS The mean of 54 summed items on this instrument yields the clinical information technology (CIT) index, a global measure of the ICU's information system performance on a 100 point scale. The dependent variable in this study was the rate of CRBSI after the implementation of several evidence-based recommendations. A multivariable linear regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between the CIT score and the post-intervention CRBSI rates after adjustment for the pre-intervention rate. RESULTS In this cross-sectional analysis, we found that a 10 point increase in the CIT score is associated with 4.6 fewer catheter related infections per 1,000 central line days for ICUs who participate in the quality improvement intervention for 1 year (95% CI: 1.0 to 8.0). CONCLUSIONS This study presents a new instrument to examine ICU information system effectiveness. The results suggest that the presence of more sophisticated information systems was associated with greater reductions in the bloodstream infection rate.
Preaching to the Choir

Background. Observational studies evaluating elective training programs may be biased if learners who enroll differ from nonenrollees. To assess self-selection bias, we compared participants who enrolled in 2 different online courses in complementary and alternative medical therapies. Methods. Participants were recruited from entering classes in medicine, nursing, social work, and dietetics, and residencies in family medicine and pediatrics. The 2 electives were (a) herbs and dietary supplements and (b) mind–body skills training. Participants completed standardized questionnaires before training. Results. The 218 participants had an average age of 28 years; 76% were trainees. There were no significant differences between enrollees in mind–body skills and herbs and dietary supplements with regard to age, gender, stress levels, mind–body training or practice, mindfulness, empathy, compassion, or resilience. Conclusions. Those who enroll in mind–body skills are not measurably different than those who enroll in herbs and dietary supplements. There is no evidence of self-selection bias or “preaching to the choir. ”
Heavy metal levels in spinach (Amaranthus caudatus ) and lettuce (Lactuca sativa ) grown in Maiduguri, Nigeria

Levels of some heavy metals (As, Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn) were investigated in edible portions of Amaranthus caudatus and Lactuca sativa grown in Maiduguri. These heavy metals were similarly investigated in the soils in which the vegetables were grown. The metals were analyzed using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The levels of the heavy metals in the vegetable and soil samples obtained from the sample areas were higher than their corresponding levels in the control samples. The results ranged from 0.26 ± 0.02 μgg-1 Cd to 10.28 ± 0.61 μgg-1 Fe in A. caudatus and 0.34 ± 0.06 μgg-1 Cd to 40.11 ± 0.16 μgg-1 Fe in L. sativa. In the soils, the results ranged from 0.56 ± 0.05 μgg-1 Cd to 60.20 ± 0.70 μgg-1 Fe. The order of the metals contamination in the soils and vegetables was: Fe > Mn > Pb > Zn > As > Cu > Cd. The data were analyzed with t-test and ANOVA. There were significant differences (p < 0.05) between the levels of the heavy metals in the vegetables obtained from the sample sites and those of the controls. The elevated levels of the metals in the soils and vegetables could be attributed to excessive usage of fertilizers and other agro-chemicals, as well as the use of waste water in irrigating the soils and of course, the environmental factors in the areas. The results were however lower than the published threshold values considered toxic for mature plant tissue, except L. sativa in which the Fe level was higher. Consumption of these vegetables as food may not pose possible health hazards to humans at the time of the study. Key words: Amaranthus caudatus, Lactuca sativa, soil, heavy metals, wastewater, fertilizers.
Does an in-Season 6-Week Combined Sprint and Jump Training Program Improve Strength-Speed Abilities and Kicking Performance in Young Soccer Players?

Abstract The aim of this study was to examine the effect of a six-week combined jump and sprint training program on strength-speed abilities in a large sample of youth competitive soccer players. It was hypothesized that the experimental training group would enhance their jumping and sprinting abilities. Enhancement of kicking performance was also hypothesized due to an expected increase in explosive strength established by a plyometric and sprinting regimen. Fiftytwo young male soccer players playing at the national level (aged 13.4 ± 1.4 years, body mass 53.4 ± 11.7 kg, body height 1.66 ± 0.11 m) took part in the study. Half of the group underwent the plyometric and sprint training program in addition to their normal soccer training, while the other half was involved in soccer training only. The plyometric training group enhanced their running (+1.7 and +3.2%) and jumping performance (+7.7%) significantly over the short period of time, while the control group did not. Furthermore, both groups increased their kicking velocity after just six weeks of training (+3.3 vs. 6.6%). The findings suggest that a short in-season 6-week sprint and jump training regimen can significantly improve explosive strength in soccer-specific skills and that these improvements can be transferred to soccer kicking performance in terms of ball speed.
Interactive screen-space accurate photon tracing on GPUs

Recent advances in algorithms and graphics hardware have opened the possibility to render caustics at interactive rates on commodity PCs. This paper extends on this work in that it presents a new method to directly render caustics on complex objects, to compute one or several refractions at such objects and to simulate caustics shadowing. At the core of our method is the idea to avoid the construction of photon maps by tracing photons in screen-space on programmable graphics hardware. Our algorithm is based on the rasterization of photon paths into texture maps. Intersection events are then resolved on a per-fragment basis using layered depth images. To correctly spread photon energy in screen-space we render aligned point sprites at the diffuse receivers where photons terminate. As our method does neither require any pre-processing nor an intermediate radiance representation it can efficiently deal with dynamic scenery and scenery that is modified, or even created on the GPU.
Active site similarities of glucose dehydrogenase, glucose oxidase, and glucoamylase probed by deoxygenated substrates.

The specificity constants, kcat/KM, were determined for glucose oxidase and glucose dehydrogenase using deoxy-D-glucose derivatives and for glucoamylase using deoxy-D-maltose derivatives as substrates. Transition-state interactions between the substrate intermediates and the enzymes were characterized by the observed kcat/Km values and found to be very similar. The binding energy contributions of individual sugar hydroxyl groups in the enzyme/substrate complexes were calculated using the relationship delta(delta G) = -RT ln [(kcat/KM)deoxy/(kcat/KM)hydroxyl] for the series of analogues. The activity of all three enzymes was found to depend heavily on the 4- and 6-OH groups (4'- and 6'-OH in maltose), where changes in binding energies from 10 to 18 kJ/mol suggested strong hydrogen bonds between the enzymes and these substrate OH groups. The 3-OH (3'-OH in maltose) was involved in weaker interactions, while the 2-OH (2'-OH in maltose) had a very small if any role in transition-state binding. The three enzyme-substrate transition-state interactions were compared using linear free energy relationships (Withers, S. G., & Rupitz, K. (1990) Biochemistry 29, 6405-6409) in which the set of kcat/KM values obtained with substrate analogues for one enzyme is plotted against the corresponding values for a second enzyme. The high linear correlation coefficients (rho) obtained, 0.916, 0.958, and 0.981, indicate significant similarity in transition-state interactions, although the three enzymes lack overall sequence homology. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Sorting from Noisy Information

This paper studies problems of inferring order given noisy information. In these problems there is an unknown order (permutation) $\pi$ on $n$ elements denoted by $1,. ,n$. We assume that information is generated in a way correlated with $\pi$. The goal is to find a maximum likelihood $\pi^*$ given the information observed. We will consider two different types of observations: noisy comparisons and noisy orders. The data in Noisy orders are permutations given from an exponential distribution correlated with \pi (this is also called the Mallow's model). The data in Noisy Comparisons is a signal given for each pair of elements which is correlated with their true ordering. In this paper we present polynomial time algorithms for solving both problems with high probability. As part of our proof we show that for both models the maximum likelihood solution $\pi^{\ast}$ is close to the original permutation $\pi$. Our results are of interest in applications to ranking, such as ranking in sports, or ranking of search items based on comparisons by experts.
Transcriptome Profiles of Populus euphratica upon Heat Shock stress

Heat stress, which strongly affects plant performance and often results in reduced vegetative growth and yields depression, has become an increasingly serious global problem. Populus euphratica Oliv. which has been considered as a tree model for the study of plant response to abiotic stresses, could be resistant to an extremely wide environmental temperature range (–40 °C to 45 °C). Previous study is mainly focused on its gene regulation upon drought and salt stress. However, little is known about gene regulation at the global transcriptome level upon heat stress. To understand the gene network controlling heat stress in P. euphratica, a transcriptome sequencing using Illumina Hiseq 2000 was performed to generate a 10 gigabases depth for each sample in the tissue of leaf. 119,573 unigeneswere generated with an average length of 474 bp. Approximately 49,605 (41.49%) unigenes exhibited significantly different expressions between two libraries. Among these unigenes, 11,165 (9.34%) were upregulated and 38,440 (32.15%) were down regulated. Heat shock proteins classified as molecular chaperones showed a significant percentage (1.13%) in the up regulated group. Heat responsive genes, such as polyubiquitins, were over expressed in heat treated sample. GO enrichment analysis revealed that the Go terms for differentially expressed unigenes were significantly enriched in hormone-mediated signal, biological process regulation and metabolic process regulation. Our data revealed a global transcriptome picture of P. euphratica in response to heat shock. The identified potential heat stress-related transcripts can be used to infer the gene regulation networks underlying the molecular mechanisms of heat response in P. euphratica.
Myopia Control with a Novel Peripheral Gradient Soft Lens and Orthokeratology: A 2-Year Clinical Trial

Objective. To evaluate the degree of axial elongation with soft radial refractive gradient (SRRG) contact lenses, orthokeratology (OK), and single vision (SV) spectacle lenses (control) during a period of 1 year before treatment and 2 years after treatment. Methods. This was a prospective, longitudinal, nonrandomized study. The study groups consisted of 30, 29, and 41 children, respectively. The axial length (AL) was measured during 2 years after recruitment and lens fitting. Results. The baseline refractive sphere was correlated significantly (Spearman's Rho (ρ) correlation = 0.542; P < 0.0001) with the amount of myopia progression before baseline. After 2 years, the mean myopia progression values for the SRRG, OK, and SV groups were −0.56 ± 0.51, −0.32 ± 0.53, and −0.98 ± 0.58 diopter, respectively. The results represent reductions in myopic progression of 43% and 67% for the SRRG and OK groups, respectively, compared to the SV group. The AL increased 27% and 38% less in the SRRG and OK groups, respectively compared with the SV group at the 2-year visit (P < 0.05). Axial elongation was not significantly different between SRRG and OK (P = 0.430). Conclusion. The SRRG lens significantly decreased AL elongation compared to the SV control group. The SRRG lens was similarly effective to OK in preventing myopia progression in myopic children and adolescent.
Investigating the Effectiveness of Group Work in Mathematics.

Group work permits students to develop a range of critical thinking, analytical and communication skills; effective team work; appreciation and respect for other views, techniques and problem-solving methods, all of which promote active learning and enhance student learning. This paper presents an evaluation of employing the didactic and pedagogical customs of group work in mathematics with the aim of improving student performance as well as exploring students' perceptions of working in groups. The evaluation of group work was carried out during tutorial time with first year civil engineering students undertaking a mathematics module in their second semester. The aim was to investigate whether group work learning can help students gain a deeper understanding of the module content, develop improved critical and analytical thinking skills and see if this method of pedagogy can produce higher performance levels. The group work sessions were conducted over four weeks whilst studying the topic of integration. Evaluation surveys were collected at the end of the intervention along with an investigation into the examination results from the end of semester examinations. In order to derive plausible and reasonable conclusions, these examination results were compared with an analogous cohort of first year mathematics students, also studying integration in their engineering-based degree. The investigation into the effectiveness of group work showed interesting and encouraging positive outcomes, supported by a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis.
A Brief Intervention to Promote Conflict Reappraisal Preserves Marital Quality Over Time

Marital quality is a major contributor to happiness and health. Unfortunately, marital quality normatively declines over time. We tested whether a novel 21-min intervention designed to foster the reappraisal of marital conflicts could preserve marital quality in a sample of 120 couples enrolled in an intensive 2-year study. Half of the couples were randomly assigned to receive the reappraisal intervention in Year 2 (following no intervention in Year 1); half were not. Both groups exhibited declines in marital quality over Year 1. This decline continued in Year 2 among couples in the control condition, but it was eliminated among couples in the reappraisal condition. This effect of the reappraisal intervention on marital quality over time was mediated through reductions in conflict-related distress over time. This study illustrates the potential of brief, theory-based, social-psychological interventions to preserve the quality of intimate relationships over time.
Testing Predictions From Personality Neuroscience

We used a new theory of the biological basis of the Big Five personality traits to generate hypotheses about the association of each trait with the volume of different brain regions. Controlling for age, sex, and whole-brain volume, results from structural magnetic resonance imaging of 116 healthy adults supported our hypotheses for four of the five traits: Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Extraversion covaried with volume of medial orbitofrontal cortex, a brain region involved in processing reward information. Neuroticism covaried with volume of brain regions associated with threat, punishment, and negative affect. Agreeableness covaried with volume in regions that process information about the intentions and mental states of other individuals. Conscientiousness covaried with volume in lateral prefrontal cortex, a region involved in planning and the voluntary control of behavior. These findings support our biologically based, explanatory model of the Big Five and demonstrate the potential of personality neuroscience (i.e., the systematic study of individual differences in personality using neuroscience methods) as a discipline.
A Truncated RQ Iteration for Large Scale Eigenvalue Calculations

We introduce a new Krylov subspace iteration for large scale eigenvalue problems that is able to accelerate the convergence through an inexact (iterative) solution to a shift-invert equation. The method also takes full advantage of exact solutions when they can be obtained with sparse direct method. We call this new iteration the truncated RQ (TRQ) iteration. It is based upon a recursion that develops in the leading k columns of the implicitly shifted RQ iteration for dense matrices. Inverse-iteration-like convergence to a partial Schur decomposition occurs in the leading k columns of the updated basis vectors and Hessenberg matrices. The TRQ iteration is competitive with the rational Krylov method of Ruhe when the shift-invert equations can be solved directly and with the Jacobi--Davidson method of Sleijpen and Van der Vorst when these equations are solved inexactly with a preconditioned iterative method. The TRQ iteration is related to both of these but is derived directly from the RQ iteration and thus inherits the convergence properties of that method. Existing RQ deflation strategies may be employed directly in the TRQ iteration.