Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence for adaptive changes in egg laying in crickets exposed to bacteria and parasites

Animals should increase their present reproductive output if their chances for future reproduction are low. However, an animal's ability to make this adjustment may be constrained by the physiological mechanisms mediating the response. To examine this hypothesis, I infected 2- and 5-week-old female crickets, Acheta domesticus, with either a pathogen (the bacterium Serratia marcescens) that induces antimicrobial immune responses, or a parasite (larvae of the parasitoid fly, Ormia ochracea) that induces an encapsulation immune response. Females of both age groups infected with bacteria laid more eggs the day after injection than did saline-injected crickets. A similar increase was elicited by injecting components of the bacterial cell wall (lipopolysaccharides). The bacteria-induced increase in egg laying (1) was not the result of physical stress, (2) did not appear to be a nonspecific response to the infection, and (3) was probably not mediated by octopamine. Females did not increase egg laying when infested with O. ochracea, even though this parasitoid invariably kills its host. Injections of Sephadex beads, which induced an immune response similar to that created by the parasitoids, also had no effect on egg laying. These results are consistent with the hypotheses that crickets can increase egg laying in response to infection and that increased egg output correlates with the activation of some, but not all, immune responses. Copyright 1999 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Wage disparities and performance expectations

The results of this study provide evidence that differences in pay can induce corresponding differences in subjective assessments of one's own ability relatice to others. In an expectation states experiment, men and women who were paid more than their partners were more resistant to influence by those partners than men and women who were paid less than their partners. The theoretical and practical implications of this inference from reward allocations to self-other performance expectations are discussed
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: An Opportunity for Advocates

On 8 March 1989, at a late night session of the UN Commission of Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, government representatives from forty-two nations accepted the final report of the working group that had spent the past nine years drafting a new, international treaty for the protection of children. This new piece of proposed international law, the future UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, contains fifty-four separate articles that detail both the civil and political rights of children and their social, economic, and cultural rights. Included in these provisions, for the first time, will be the establishment of an international panel of experts who will be responsible for assessing the condition of children worldwide, publicizing their plight, and recommending action on their behalf. Although this treaty will be the subject of further discussion by the UN's Third Committee, it is believed that it can still be completed in time to be adopted by the UN General Assembly. The power and strength of this document, however, will be dependent on the support that it receives from the concerned people of the world. It is vital, therefore, that the text of this treaty is carefully studied and that people form their own opinions as to the significance of this document-and evaluate its importance not only to the children of their own country, but of the world. No international treaty should be seen as a panacea for solving all the ills that beset children. However, consideration should be given to the potential of this Convention as the clarion of a worldwide movement that will grow stronger and louder and as a grassroots movement of adults demanding that children receive the standards of care and protection to which they are entitled. For all of those dedicated to the pursuit of peace and justice, the passage of this Convention on the Rights of the Child will mark the pinnacle of an international effort to promote the basic needs of children as fundamental human rights. In addition, the Convention will provide the legal framework under which advocates will demand the level of investment required to support the services necessary for the well-being of all childrenand especially for the children of the poor.
A Gendered View of Servant Leadership

This purpose of this quantitative, cross-sectional study was to examine whether differences exist between males and females in their servant leadership behaviors. Existing research concerning gender and servant leadership is inconclusive. Participants in this study were alumni of a Master's of Science in Organizational Leadership (MSOL) program at a Christian liberal arts college in southwestern Pennsylvania. This study is unique in that the participants were similarly educated about servant leadership and have a common understanding about the practice of servant leadership. The Essential Servant Leadership behaviors scale (Winston & Fields, 2012) was distributed through emails via Survey Monkey. The college provided email addresses for 502 alumni. Of the 160 responses, 157 were usable, which yields a response rate of 31%. The participants included 63 males (39.4%) and 97 females (60.6%). Gender, age, years of supervision, work sector and whether the participant's organization was in a period or organizational change or stability served and the independent variables. Factor analysis confirmed that the ten servant leadership behaviors measured one dimension. The resulting aggregated one-dimensional servant leadership scale served as the dependent variable. Multiple regression analysis yielded a finding of no significant difference between males and females in their servant leadership behaviors. No significant differences existed in the number of years of supervision or the participants' perception of organizational change or stability. The existence of significant differences in age groups of forty and above suggest that servant leadership practitioners in those ages tend to be more affirming of servant leadership. Also, the existence of statistically significant differences in the Healthcare and the Religious/Other sectors suggest that servant leadership practitioners who work in those sectors are more affirming of servant leadership behaviors than those who work in other sectors. The results of this study contribute to the literature concerning gender and servant leadership and suggest that future research concerning servant leadership with respect to age and workplace sectors may be warranted.
Comment on Hartmut Esser/2

In response to several special characteristics of the so-called “new immigration” and to the well-known weaknesses of classical assimilation theory, several theoretical suggestions have recently been made and discussed, including, in particular, the “Theory of Segmented Assimilation” and the “New Assimilation Theory. ” In addition to the (classical) structural outcome of assimilation, these theories assume two other possible outcomes: ethnic stratification as the enduring social descent of following generations and selective acculturation as the social advancement by using and retaining ethnic resources and identities. This contribution reconstructs these theoretical developments and the presumed structural outcomes as special cases of a comprehensive model, i.e., the model of intergenerational integration, and systematizes sub-processes and single mechanisms outlined by the various theories. Another important result is the identification of conditions and background processes that do not necessarily occur empirically, but that underlie the different theories and structural outcomes as well as the proposed model of intergenerational integration.
Earthquake ground motion amplification for surface waves

Surface waves from earthquakes are known to cause strong damage, especially for larger structures such as skyscrapers and bridges. However, common practice in characterizing seismic hazard at a specific site considers the effect of near‐surface geology on only vertically propagating body waves. Here we show that surface waves have a unique and different frequency‐dependent response to known geologic structure and that this amplification can be analytically calculated in a manner similar to current hazard practices. Applying this framework to amplification in the Los Angeles Basin, we find that peak ground accelerations for certain large regional earthquakes are underpredicted if surface waves are not properly accounted for and that the frequency of strongest ground motion amplification can be significantly different. Including surface‐wave amplification in hazards calculations is therefore essential for accurate predictions of strong ground motion for future San Andreas Fault ruptures.
Örgütsel Davranış Alanında Odaklanılan Konular ve Kullanılan Yöntemler: 2010-2015 Yılları Ulusal İşletmecilik Kongre Bildirileri Üzerine Bir İnceleme

Bu calismada, son alti yil icinde orgutsel davranis alanindaki arastirmalarin hangi konular uzerine odaklandigi ve hangi metodolojik bakis acilariyla ele alindigina iliskin egilimlerin tespit edilmesi, alandaki eksiklik ve guclu yonlerin ortaya cikarilmasi ve gelecekteki calismalara tavsiyeler sunulmasi amaclanmaktadir. Bu amac dogrultusunda 2010-2015 yillari arasinda Ulusal Isletmecilik Kongresi bildiri kitaplarinda yer alan orgutsel davranis alanindaki calismalar; odaklanilan degiskenler, kullanilan yontemler, veri kaynaklari acisindan icerik analizine tabi tutulmustur. Arastirma sonucunda son yillarda en fazla liderlik, is tatmini, orgutsel baglilik, catisma ve performans konularinda calisildigi sonucuna varilmistir. Arastirmalarin % 87,5’inin nicel, % 5,3’unun nitel yontemlerle gerceklestigi gorulmustur. Ayrica arastirmalarin % 85’inde anket yonteminin uygulandigi ve bunlarin % 95,5’inde veri kaynagi olarak kendi kendini degerlendirme yonteminin kullanildigi gorulmustur.
Antiviral Resistance Protein Tm-22 Functions on the Plasma Membrane1[OPEN]

Tomato antiviral resistance protein Tm-22 functions on the plasma membrane independent of the plasmodesmata localization of its avirulence protein. The tomato Tobacco mosaic virus resistance-22 (Tm-22) gene encodes a coiled-coil-nucleotide binding site-Leu-rich repeat protein lacking a conventional plasma membrane (PM) localization motif. Tm-22 confers plant extreme resistance against tobamoviruses including Tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) by recognizing the avirulence (Avr) viral movement protein (MP). However, the subcellular compartment where Tm-22 functions is unclear. Here, we demonstrate that Tm-22 interacts with TMV MP to form a protein complex at the PM. We show that both inactive and active Tm-22 proteins are localized to the PM. When restricted to PM by fusing Tm-22 to the S-acylated PM association motif, the Tm-22 fusion protein can still induce a hypersensitive response cell death, consistent with its activation at the PM. Through analyses of viral MP mutants, we find that the plasmodesmata (PD) localization of the Avr protein MP is not required for Tm-22 function. These results suggest that Tm-22-mediated resistance takes place on PM without requirement of its Avr protein to be located to PD.
Kinematic Factors in Countermovement Jump for Female Volleyball Players with Different Skill Levels

The focus of this paper was to identify crucial kinematic factors that contribute to the countermovement jump (CMJ) height between different skilled levels of female volleyball players. A total of 20 female volleyball players were recruited. The results of standard multiple regression indicated that the best model accounted 64% and 45% of the variance in the jump height for skilled and non-skilled group, respectively, with different combinations of variables during the preparation phase. A small portion of variance in jump height (11% and 22%) was accounted for during the propulsive phase for both groups. The skilled group exhibited more contributors from the preparation phase of the countermovement jump which indicated that skilled female volleyball players better utilize stretch-shortening cycle in jumping performance resulting in higher jump height than non-skilled female volleyball players. This also confirms the importance of storing and re-utilizing energy for jumping performance. Additionally, hip extension velocity and trunk angular displacement were essential for jump height during propulsive phase. Several pedagogical guidelines are provided to improve female volleyball players' CMJ performance.
RhoA Activation Contributes to Sex Differences in Vascular Contractions

Objective—Studies have suggested that sex differences in endothelial function in part account for the lower incidence of cardiovascular disease in premenopausal women compared with men. Less is known about the role of smooth muscle. We hypothesized that signaling mechanisms that regulate calcium sensitivity in vascular muscle also play a role in determining sex differences in contractile function. Methods and Results—In aorta, concentration-dependent contractions to serotonin were greater in male versus female mice whereas contractions to KCl and U46619 were similar. Nitric oxide or other endothelial-derived factors did not account for the difference in responses to serotonin because inhibition of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) with NG-nitro-l-arginine, genetic deficiency of endothelial NOS, and removal of endothelium increased contractions but did not abolish the enhanced contractions in aorta from males. Contractions in aorta from both males and females were abolished by a serotonergic 5HT2A receptor antagonist (ketanserin), however there was no sex difference in 5HT2A receptor expression. Activation of RhoA and Rho-kinase by serotonin was greater in aorta from males compared with females, but this was not related to greater expression of RhoA or Rho-kinase isoforms (ROCK1 and ROCK2). The sex difference in aortic contractions to serotonin was abolished by an inhibitor of Rho-kinase, Y27632. Conclusion—We conclude that increased contractions to serotonin in aorta from male mice are attributable to differences in RhoA/Rho-kinase activation in smooth muscle independent of differences in the expression of RhoA or Rho-kinase.
Kinematics and dynamics of the "superthin" edge-on disk galaxy IC 5249

We present spectroscopic observations of the stellar motions in the disk of the superthin edge-on spiral galaxy IC 5249 and re-analyse synthesis observations of the HI. We find that the HI rotation curve rises initially to about 90-100 km s(-1), but contrary to the conclusion of Abe et al. (1999) flattens well before the edge of the optical disk. Over most part of the optical disk we have been able to establish that the (tangential) stellar velocity dispersion is 25-30 km s(-1). We argue that the central light concentration in the disk is not a bulge in the classical Population II sense, but most likely represents structure in the disk component. From earlier surface photometry we adopt a value for the radial scalelength of the disk of 7 +/- 1 kpc, a vertical scaleheight of 0.65 +/- 0.05 kpc and a disk truncation radius of 17 +/- 1 kpc. The HI disk has a measurable thickness but from our analysis we conclude that this is due to a small inclination away from perfectly edge-on. The very thin appearance of IC 5249 on the sky is the result of a combination of a low (face-on) surface brightness, a long scalelength and a a sharp truncation at only about 2.5 scalelengths. In terms of the ratio of the radial scalelength and the vertical scaleheight of the disk, IC 5249 is not very at; in fact it is slightly fatter than the disk of our Galaxy. From various arguments we derive the stellar velocity dispersions at a position one radial scalelength out in the disk (R similar to 7 kpc) as respectively sigma (R) similar to 35 km s(-1), sigma (theta) similar to 30 km s(-1) and sigma (z) similar to 20 km s(-1). This is comparable to the values for the disk of our Galaxy in the solar neighborhood. Near the edge of the disk the ratio of radial to vertical velocity dispersion is probably higher. Presumably the angular momentum distribution of the gas that formed the disk in IC 5249 was such that, compared to the Galaxy, a much more extended distribution resulted in spite of the lower overall rotation and mass. The low surface density that arose from that resulted in a thicker HI layer in which star formation proceeded at a much slower rate, but disk heating proceeded at a similar pace.
Oxalate Efflux Transporter from the Brown Rot Fungus Fomitopsis palustris

ABSTRACT An oxalate-fermenting brown rot fungus, Fomitopsis palustris, secretes large amounts of oxalic acid during wood decay. Secretion of oxalic acid is indispensable for the degradation of wood cell walls, but almost nothing is known about the transport mechanism by which oxalic acid is secreted from F. palustris hyphal cells. We characterized the mechanism for oxalate transport using membrane vesicles of F. palustris. Oxalate transport in F. palustris was ATP dependent and was strongly inhibited by several inhibitors, such as valinomycin and NH4+, suggesting the presence of a secondary oxalate transporter in this fungus. We then isolated a cDNA, FpOAR (Fomitopsispalustrisoxalic acid resistance), from F. palustris by functional screening of yeast transformants with cDNAs grown on oxalic acid-containing plates. FpOAR is predicted to be a membrane protein that possesses six transmembrane domains but shows no similarity with known oxalate transporters. The yeast transformant possessing FpOAR (FpOAR-transformant) acquired resistance to oxalic acid and contained less oxalate than the control transformant. Biochemical analyses using membrane vesicles of the FpOAR-transformant showed that the oxalate transport property of FpOAR was consistent with that observed in membrane vesicles of F. palustris. The quantity of FpOAR transcripts was correlated with increasing oxalic acid accumulation in the culture medium and was induced when exogenous oxalate was added to the medium. These results strongly suggest that FpOAR plays an important role in wood decay by acting as a secondary transporter responsible for secretion of oxalate by F. palustris.
Molecular screening of ADAMTSL2 gene in 33 patients reveals the genetic heterogeneity of geleophysic dysplasia

Background Geleophysic dysplasia (GD, OMIM 231050) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterised by short stature, small hands and feet, stiff joints, and thick skin. Patients often present with a progressive cardiac valvular disease which can lead to an early death. In a previous study including six GD families, we have mapped the disease gene on chromosome 9q34.2 and identified mutations in the A Disintegrin And Metalloproteinase with Thrombospondin repeats-like 2 gene (ADAMTSL2). Methods Following this study, we have collected the samples of 30 additional GD families, including 33 patients and identified ADAMTSL2 mutations in 14/33 patients, comprising 13 novel mutations. The absence of mutation in 19 patients prompted us to compare the two groups of GD patients, namely group 1, patients with ADAMTSL2 mutations (n=20, also including the 6 patients from our previous study), and group 2, patients without ADAMTSL2 mutations (n=19). Results The main discriminating features were facial dysmorphism and tip-toe walking, which were almost constantly observed in group 1. No differences were found concerning heart involvement, skin thickness, recurrent respiratory and ear infections, bronchopulmonary insufficiency, laryngo-tracheal stenosis, deafness, and radiographic features. Conclusions It is concluded that GD is a genetically heterogeneous condition. Ongoing studies will hopefully lead to the identification of another disease gene.
Perfil de desempenho de escolares nas funções cognitivas atenção e funções executivas : um estudo exploratório na cidade de Salvador-BA

Behavioral problems and learning disabilities are the main reasons for bringing children to be evaluated by a clinical psychologist. Neuropsychological evaluation is of great interest to clinical and school psychologists because it has been useful for the conceptualization of a variety of learning problems, for the development of interventions and for promoting a better understanding of quantitative and qualitative differences between various groups of children. Attention and executive functions tasks have been increasingly used as instruments for making learning problems diagnosis. Thus, the adequacy and usefulness of the neuropsychological executive functions assessment instruments for children have been the focus of several investigations abroad as well as in Brazil. This investigation aims at verifying Bahia schoolchildren ́s achievement profile of executive functions assessed through a recent, not yet validated in Brazil, neuropsychological assessment instrument (NEPSY) Performance profile in Escala de TDAH, a brazilian attention deficits and hyperactivity behavior scale and WISC III are also attempted . Besides the performance profile, the investigation also aims at verifying the existence of associations among the used instruments and socio-demographic variables, observing the existence of correlations between achievement results obtained with the different instruments, and the adequacy of the above mentioned instruments for Bahia subject sample. Data relative to 60 schoolchildren, ranging from 6 to 12 years of age from public and private schools in Salvador were clipped from a preexisting data base and submitted to analysis in terms of frequency, inferential methods, correlations and analysis of covariance. Important associations between achievement in WISC III and in NEPSY and social-demographic variables such as sex, type of school, family income, degree of parents ́ schooling were found; associations between NEPSY attention and executive functions results and WISC III subtests and factors were also found; statistically significant differences between the results of the Bahia sample and the normatization samples were also found; the ADHD Scale results seem to have suffered influence of age variable and there were no associations with WISC III or NEPSY results. The most important conclusions of this investigation are related to the existing associations between WISC III and NEPSY results which suggest the inadequacy of the interpretation of the results obtained by the Bahia sample when the existing normative tables were used. The clinical implications of the results are discussed and future research needs are suggested.