Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The structure of the crust and uppermost mantle beneath the western US revealed by ambient noise and earthquake tomography

Ambient noise tomography and multiple plane-wave earthquake tomography are new methods of surface wave analysis that yield much more highly refined information about the crust and uppermost mantle than traditional surface wave techniques. Applied together to data observed at more than 300 broad-band seismic stations from the Transportable Array component of the EarthScope USArray, these methods yield surface wave dispersion curves from 8 to 100 sec period across the entire western US with unprecedented resolution. We use the local Rayleigh wave phase speed curves to construct a unified isotropic 3D Vs model to a depth of about 150 km. Crustal and uppermost mantle features that underlie the western US are revealed in striking relief. As the USArray continues to sweep eastward across the US, the substructure of the entire country will be unveiled.
Evidence for multiple steps in neoplastic transformation of normal and preneoplastic Syrian hamster embryo cells following transfection with Harvey murine sarcoma virus oncogene (v-Ha-ras).

Neoplastic development of Syrian hamster embryo (SHE) cells in culture is a multistep process in which intermediate or preneoplastic cells can be identified and isolated. In an attempt to further characterize normal and preneoplastic cells, we have compared their susceptibilities to neoplastic transformation following transfection with cloned DNA of the oncogenic virus, Harvey murine sarcoma virus (HaMSV). Normal SHE cells, which are stably nontumorigenic when injected in nude mice, are competent to take up and express exogenous DNA as demonstrated by transfection experiments with pSV2-neo DNA and certain viral DNAs. SHE cells treated with 5 micrograms of HaMSV DNA per dish remained nontumorigenic. Colonies of SHE cells, isolated after cotransfection with HaMSV and pSV2-neo DNA and selection for G418 antibiotic resistance, expressed Harvey murine sarcoma virus oncogene (v-Ha-ras) RNA and were initially morphologically altered; however, all colonies senesced when subcultured. In contrast, transfection of the cells with polyoma virus DNA alone or HaMSV DNA plus MC29 viral DNA (pSVv-myc) and then injection of the cells into nude mice resulted in progressively growing tumors of hamster origin within 3 to 5 weeks. A preneoplastic cell line, DES-4, isolated after treatment of SHE cells with the human carcinogen diethylstilbestrol, was chosen for comparative analyses. These immortalized cells are nontumorigenic and excellent recipients for exogenous DNA. In contrast to SHE cells, DES-4 cells were highly susceptible to neoplastic transformation following transfection with HaMSV DNA. To further investigate the role of HaMSV DNA in the neoplastic transformation of DES-4 cells and to determine whether this occurred as a single step, clones of DES-4 cells cotransfected with pSV2-neo and HaMSV DNAs were selected by antibiotic resistance and characterized. There was a good correlation between tumorigenicity and expression of v-Ha-ras DNA; however, the clones were highly variable in terms of their latency periods in vivo and anchorage-independent growth. Neither of these two parameters correlated with the level of expression of v-Ha-ras RNA. All of the cell lines derived from tumors and reinoculated into nude mice had short latency periods in vivo, were highly anchorage independent, and had high levels of v-Ha-ras expression. These results suggest that, in these experiments, v-Ha-ras expression was necessary, but not sufficient, for the tumorigenicity of DES-4 cells and that additional changes in the cells were acquired. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
The Effectiveness of Brain Gym and Brain Training Intervention on Working Memory Performance of Student with Learning Disability

Learning disability is commonly associated with a weak working memory function of a student that impacts his or her performance in school. This study aims to identify the effective approaches that could enhance the working memory function of students with learning disability. This quasi-experimental study involved three group of five students that were allocated into control group, Brain Gym, and Brain Training intervention group. The Brain Gym intervention group performed Brain Gym ® Superspace exercise on a daily basis for four weeks during the first school session. Meanwhile, Brain Training intervention was carried out by another intervention groups on a daily basis for four weeks. They were allocated with 5-minutes Brain Training game for each person in a group during free time at school. Data for the working memory function that were collected during pre- and post-test using three instruments: (1) Digit Span Memory Test; (2) Spatial Memory Test; and (3) Picture Identification Test. Two non-parametric test was used to interpret the data: (1) Spearman Rank Order Correlation to determine the relationship of the three groups on the pre- and post-test and Wilcoxon Pair Signed Rank Test to measure the difference between pre- and post-test scores for the control group, two intervention groups, and three working memory component. The findings of the study show a significant increment of the working memory function for both intervention groups. The finding also shows a significant increment for Digit Span Memory and Spatial Memory skills among participants in the intervention group. This study provides alternative to parents, teachers and school administration to provide appropriate learning stimulus that could fulfill the needs of students in school and at home.
Identification of vowel length, word stress, and compound words and phrases by postlingually deafened cochlear implant listeners.

BACKGROUND The accurate perception of prosody assists a listener in deriving meaning from natural speech. Few studies have addressed the ability of cochlear implant (CI) listeners to perceive the brief duration prosodic cues involved in contrastive vowel length, word stress, and compound word and phrase identification. PURPOSE To compare performance in the perception of brief duration prosodic contrasts by CI participants and a control group of normal hearing participants. This study investigated the ability to perceive these cues in quiet and noise conditions, and to identify auditory perceptual factors that might predict prosodic perception in the CI group. Prosodic perception was studied both in noise and quiet because noise is a pervasive feature of everyday environments. RESEARCH DESIGN A quasi-experimental correlation design was employed. STUDY SAMPLE Twenty-one CI recipients participated along with a control group of 10 normal hearing participants. All CI participants were unilaterally implanted adults who had considerable experience with oral language prior to implantation. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Speech identification testing measured the participants' ability to identify word stress, vowel length, and compound words or phrases all of which were presented with minimal-pair response choices. Tests were performed in quiet and in speech-spectrum shaped noise at a 10 dB signal-to-noise ratio. Also, discrimination thresholds for four acoustic properties of a synthetic vowel were measured as possible predictors of prosodic perception. Testing was carried out during one session, and participants used their clinically assigned speech processors. RESULTS The CI group could not identify brief prosodic cues as well as the control group, and their performance decreased significantly in the noise condition. Regression analysis showed that the discrimination of intensity predicted performance on the prosodic tasks. The performance decline measured with the older participants meant that age also emerged as a predictor. CONCLUSIONS This study provides a portrayal of CI recipients' ability to perceive brief prosodic cues. This is of interest in the preparation of rehabilitation materials used in training and in developing realistic expectations for potential CI candidates.
Deformation mechanism of hardened cement paste under high stress and application of flow law

In this study, a creep test was performed on hardened cement paste (HCP) with stepwise load increase at different confining pressures and saturation degrees. The strain rate–stress relationship, obtained under a stress of >75% of the maximum strength and plotted on a log–log chart, showed a slope of six. From previous studies on crystalline materials, such as rock, metal, and ice, it can be inferred that this slope indicates a deformation governed by dislocation creep. If dislocation creep occurs in HCP, the deformation may be governed by crystalline hydrates other than calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) because dislocation creep is generally not defined for gel materials. Further study and careful discussion are required because a slope of six is a necessary condition for the dislocation creep. The activation volume was evaluated, and the flow law was applied to calculate the strain rate of HCP. The obtained activation volume gives a better fit for the measured results than the previously reported values.
A boosting approach to structure learning of graphs with and without prior knowledge

MOTIVATION Identifying the network structure through which genes and their products interact can help to elucidate normal cell physiology as well as the genetic architecture of pathological phenotypes. Recently, a number of gene network inference tools have appeared based on Gaussian graphical model representations. Following this, we introduce a novel Boosting approach to learn the structure of a high-dimensional Gaussian graphical model motivated by the applications in genomics. A particular emphasis is paid to the inclusion of partial prior knowledge on the structure of the graph. With the increasing availability of pathway information and large-scale gene expression datasets, we believe that conditioning on prior knowledge will be an important aspect in raising the statistical power of structural learning algorithms to infer true conditional dependencies. RESULTS Our Boosting approach, termed BoostiGraph, is conceptually and algorithmically simple. It complements recent work on the network inference problem based on Lasso-type approaches. BoostiGraph is computationally cheap and is applicable to very high-dimensional graphs. For example, on graphs of order 5000 nodes, it is able to map out paths for the conditional independence structure in few minutes. Using computer simulations, we investigate the ability of our method with and without prior information to infer Gaussian graphical models from artificial as well as actual microarray datasets. The experimental results demonstrate that, using our method, it is possible to recover the true network topology with relatively high accuracy. AVAILABILITY This method and all other associated files are freely available from http://www.stats. ox.ac. uk/~anjum/.
Gender Differences in the Relationship Between Young Children's Peer-Related Social Competence and Individual Differences in Theory of Mind

In this study, the author examined the relationship between theory-of-mind understanding and preschool-aged children's peer-related social competence. One hundred eleven 3- to 5-year-old children (48 boys, 63 girls) participated in 2 theory-of-mind tasks designed to assess their understanding of false belief. Teachers rated children's peer-related social behavior in terms of prosocial behavior, aggressive or disruptive behavior, and shy or withdrawn behavior. Results indicated that, after controlling for age, theory-of-mind understanding significantly predicted aggressive or disruptive behavior for boys and prosocial behavior for girls. Theory-of-mind understanding also was related to lower scores of shy or withdrawn behavior for boys. Results are discussed in terms of the gender differences in the factors contributing to early peer competence.
Pulmonary Agenesis and Associated Pulmonary Hypertension: A Case Report and Review on Variability, Therapy, and Outcome

Abstract Pulmonary agenesis is a rare congenital disorder with large variability in presentation and prognosis. We describe a full-term infant born with right-sided pulmonary agenesis who underwent thoracoscopic placement of a tissue expander. He ultimately died of pulmonary hypertension. Immunohistology showed intimal hyperplasia without the loss of endothelial caveolin-1 expression. A literature review revealed that while some of these patients have favorable outcome, many succumb despite therapy.
Adenovirus-Based Vaccine with Epitopes Incorporated in Novel Fiber Sites to Induce Protective Immunity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Adenovirus (Ad) vector-based vaccines displaying pathogen-derived epitopes on Ad capsid proteins can elicit anti-pathogen immunity. This approach seems to be particularly efficient with epitopes incorporated into the Ad fiber protein. Here, we explore epitope insertion into various sites of the Ad fiber to elicit epitope-specific immunity. Ad vectors expressing the 14-mer Pseudomonas aeruginosa immune-dominant outer membrane protein F (OprF) epitope 8 (Epi8) in five distinct sites of the Ad5 fiber, loops CD (AdZ.F(CD)Epi8), DE (AdZ.F(DE)Epi8), FG (AdZ.F(FG)Epi8), HI (AdZ.F(HI)Epi8) and C terminus (AdZ.F(CT)Epi8), or the hexon HVR5 loop (AdZ.HxEpi8) were compared in their capacity to elicit anti-P. aeruginosa immunity to AdOprF, an Ad expressing the entire OprF protein. Intramuscular immunization of BALB/c mice with AdZ.F(FG)Epi8 or AdZ.F(HI)Epi8 elicited higher anti-OprF humoral and cellular CD4 and CD8 responses as well as enhanced protection against respiratory infection with P. aeruginosa compared to immunization with AdZ.F(CD)Epi8, AdZ.F(DE)Epi8, AdZ.F(CT)Epi8 or AdZ.HxEpi8. Importantly, repeat administration of the fiber- and hexon-modified Ad vectors boosted the OprF-specific humoral immune response in contrast to immunization with AdOprF. Strikingly, following three doses of AdZ.F(FG)Epi8 or AdZ.F(HI)Epi8 anti-OprF immunity surpassed that induced by AdOprF. Furthermore, in the presence of anti-Ad5 immunity, immunization with AdZ.F(FG)Epi8 or AdZ.F(HI)Epi8, but not with AdOprF, induced protective immunity against P. aeruginosa. This suggests that incorporation of epitopes into distinct sites of the Ad fiber is a promising vaccine strategy.
Teachers’ Workload: Evidence and Ambiguity on Professional Identity

Understanding changes in the teaching profession as means of State control implies the hypothesis of teachers' identity reconfiguration. The use of time may be viewed as a powerful tool in rebuilding teachers' identity as well as an important element in the process of developing professional identity. This study aims at describing and analyzing secondary level teachers' actual workload, and it relies on the empirical data available concerning different national contexts, and on a description of the teachers' work composition. This description was obtained through enquiries about the daily work of teachers from different subjects. The methodology used focused on multiple case studies, and the inquiries were conducted in two Portuguese secondary schools. The main results of these inquiries show the teachers' overwork, and a significant dispersion through several types of tasks. Another important result shows that the available institutional data needs to be read along with the empirical studies conducted, for the latter reveal that teaching can no longer be considered a soft profession, particularly due to the workload and the need to develop very different but simultaneous skills. The increased control of the State over schools and teachers, and the increment of a wider set of tasks regarding school bureaucracy, organization and projects represent a significant percentage of the teachers' work time.
The Thermogenic Responses to Overfeeding and Cold Are Differentially Regulated

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a highly metabolic tissue that generates heat and is negatively associated with obesity. BAT has been proposed to mediate both cold‐induced thermogenesis (CIT) and diet‐induced thermogenesis (DIT). Therefore, it was investigated whether there is a relationship between CIT and DIT in humans.
Using AD to solve BVPs in MATLAB

The MATLAB program bvp4c solves two--point boundary value problems (BVPs) of considerable generality. The numerical method requires partial derivatives of several kinds. To make solving BVPs as easy as possible, the default in bvp4c is to approximate these derivatives with finite differences. The solver is more robust and efficient if analytical derivatives are supplied. In this article we investigate how to use automatic differentiation (AD) to obtain the advantages of analytical derivatives without giving up the convenience of finite differences. In bvp4cAD we have approached this ideal by a careful use of the MAD AD tool and some modification of bvp4c.
Awareness and incidents of occupational health hazards among female workers of small scale food processing units of Punjab state

Female workers have to work both in the industry as well as at the home to meet their family’s daily need. The work pattern in food processing units is very repetitive and exposes workers to several health risks. Lack of protective clothing and equipment also exposes workers’ health to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) hazards and diseases, thereby reducing their efficiency and productivity. The present study was, therefore, undertaken to explore the awareness and incidents of occupational health hazards among female workers of small scale food processing units. The study was carried out on 30 women workers engaged in small scale food processing units. The sample was randomly selected from five randomly selected food processing units of Punjab state. Personal interview method, using an interview schedule, and observation technique were adopted to collect the relevant data. Results revealed that most of the respondents were aware about many of the occupational health hazards related to their work and all the respondents were suffering from muscle pain and discomfort because of working in awkward posture for long working hours. Majority (85 %) of the respondents were aware about the regular use of Personal Protective Equipment/Clothing (PPE/PPC) at workplace, but only 33.3 per cent were using apron, 36.7 per cent were using gloves, 26.7 per cent were using face mask and 40 per cent were using head cover at the workplace. Also because of the pain in the lower back of the respondents, many of their routine activities got affected. The present study highlighted the occupational health hazards faced by the workers of small scale food processing units and the causes of health hazards. It will be beneficial for the workers and the employers of food processing units to take preventive measures to avoid or reduce any health risks at the workplace.
Extrasynaptic N-Methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) Receptor Stimulation Induces Cytoplasmic Translocation of the CDKL5 Kinase and Its Proteasomal Degradation*

Mutations in the X-linked gene cyclin-dependent kinase-like 5 (CDKL5) have been found in patients with epileptic encephalopathy characterized by early onset intractable epilepsy, including infantile spasms and other types of seizures, severe developmental delay, and often the development of Rett syndrome-like features. Despite its clear involvement in proper brain development, CDKL5 functions are still far from being understood. In this study, we analyzed the subcellular localization of the endogenous kinase in primary murine hippocampal neurons. CDKL5 was localized both in nucleus and cytoplasm and, conversely to proliferating cells, did not undergo constitutive shuttling between these compartments. Nevertheless, glutamate stimulation was able to induce the exit of the kinase from the nucleus and its subsequent accumulation in the perinuclear cytoplasm. Moreover, we found that sustained glutamate stimulation promoted CDKL5 proteasomal degradation. Both events were mediated by the specific activation of extrasynaptic pool of N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors. Proteasomal degradation was also induced by withdrawal of neurotrophic factors and hydrogen peroxide treatment, two different paradigms of cell death. Altogether, our results indicate that both subcellular localization and expression of CDKL5 are modulated by the activation of extrasynaptic N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors and suggest regulation of CDKL5 by cell death pathways.
The Permissive Cue Laminin Is Essential for Growth Cone TurningIn Vivo

The proper guidance of migrating growth cones relies on the balance of multiple guidance cues in the embryonic environment. In addition to guidance cues, growth cones are in contact with other substrates that may contribute to the pathfinding of neurons. For example, in the developing insect peripheral nervous system, pioneer neurons migrate on and between layers of the basal lamina. Previous studies have demonstrated that one basal lamina molecule, laminin, promotes outgrowth of many classes of neurons in vitro. In this study, the simple grasshopper nervous system was used to investigate the role of laminin in neuronal pathfinding. Laminin expression precedes axonogenesis of the Tibial (Ti1) pioneer neurons in the developing limb bud, and expression continues during outgrowth and guidance of the pioneer neurons. The role of a nidogen-binding motif on laminin was investigated using subunit-specific antibodies and peptides as blocking reagents in vivo. Antibodies and peptides that block the nidogen-binding site on laminin resulted in stalled Ti1 axon migration, predominantly at the precise location where they normally turn ventrally. After prolonged culturing, Ti1 axons remained stalled at the same location. Therefore, although Ti1 axons were capable of outgrowth in the presence of blocking reagents, they were not able to navigate an essential turn. This study indicates that the interaction of the Ti1 growth cone with the nidogen-binding site on laminin is vital for neuronal pathfinding in vivo and suggests that permissive cues may be essential for growth cone steering.
Bug Localization in Test-Driven Development

Software development teams that use agile methodologies are increasingly adopting the test-driven development practice (TDD). TDD allows to produce software by iterative and incremental work cycle, and with a strict control over the process, favouring an early detection of bugs. However, when applied to large and complex systems, TDD benefits are not so obvious; manually locating and fixing bugs introduced during the iterative development steps is a nontrivial task. In such systems, the propagation chains following the bugs activation can be unacceptably long and intricate, and the size of the code to be analyzed is often too large. In this paper, a bug localization technique specifically tailored to TDD is presented. The technique is embedded in the TDD cycle, and it aims to improve developers' ability to locate bugs as soon as possible. It is implemented in a tool and experimentally evaluated on newly developed Java programs.