Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dopaminergic Transplants in Patients with Parkinson's Disease: Neuroanatomical Correlates of Clinical Recovery

For the past 15 years, patients with Parkinson's disease have participated in clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of intrastriatal dopamine transplants. Principally, two donor tissues have been employed, the chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla and fetal ventral mesencephalon. The clinical response following each type of transplant has been variable. In general, the magnitude and the duration of the clinical response is greater with fetal dopaminergic neurons than with adrenal medullary grafts. Postmortem studies of patients receiving adrenal medullary grafts or fetal nigral implants provide a neuroanatomical framework for the clinical response. Adrenal grafts survive poorly following implantation into the striatum, but they are capable of inducing sprouting of host-derived fibers within a the caudate nucleus. In contrast, robust survival of fetal nigral implants can be achieved within the human brain which can provide extensive reinnervation to the parkinsonian striatum. These findings are strikingly similar to what has been seen in rodent and nonhuman primate models of PD. This paper describes the neuroanatomical correlates of dopamine brain grafting in humans and elucidates the pattern of changes seen in dopaminergic systems which are associated with clinical benefit.
Analytical approach to 2.5D sound field control using a circular double-layer array of fixed-directivity loudspeakers

This paper provides a regularization-free analytical approach to 2.5D interior and exterior sound field control using a circular double-layer array of fixed-directivity loudspeakers not only to provide a desired sound field inside the array but also to reduce the sound energy outside of it in the horizontal plane. The proposed method analytically derives the driving functions of the inner and outer circular arrays based on 2.5D spherical harmonic expansion to simultaneously control both sound fields inside and outside the array by a modematching framework. The results of computer simulations show that the proposed method is certainly effective compared with the conventional least squares approach that requires regularization schemes in terms of synthesis accuracy inside the listening zone over a wideband frequency range and the acoustic contrast between the quiet zone and the synthesis center at low frequencies.
Images and the Growth of Understanding of Mathematics-for-Working

This article considers the nature and growth of mathematical understanding within the context of the workplace-training classroom. In doing this, it draws on elements of the Pirie-Kieren Theory for the Dynamical Growth of Mathematical Understanding, in particular the notions of “Image Making” and “Image Having. ” These theoretical ideas are elaborated to allow the more appropriate description of how the understanding of construction industry apprentices is observed to grow in their training as they engage with tasks with significant mathematical components. Through doing this we illustrate how the Pirie-Kieren Theory can be used to describe the growth of understanding of “mathematics-for-working” (influenced by the work of Ball and Bass (2003) on “mathematics-forteaching”), and identify some of the key elements in this growth. RésuméCet article se penche sur la nature et l’évolution de la compréhension des mathématiques dans le cadre de la formation pratique en classe visant l’intégration dans le marché du travail. Ainsi, nous nous inspirons de certains éléments de la théorie de Pirie-Kieren sur la croissance dynamique de la compréhension mathématique, en particulier en ce qui concerne les notions de “création d’images” et de “possession d’images”. Ces notions théoriques sont construites pour qu’on puisse formuler une description plus adéquate des fac¸ons dont la compréhension, chez les apprentis dans le domaine de la construction, évolue au cours de leur formation au fur et à mesure qu’ils s’engagent dans des tâches comprenant des composantes mathématiques significatives. Ainsi, nous sommes en mesure d’illustrer comment la théorie de Pirie-Kieren peut servir à décrire l’évolution de la compréhension des “mathématiques pour le travail” (point de vue influencé par les travaux de Ball et Bass (2003) sur les “mathématiques pour l’apprentissage”), et à déterminer certains éléments clés de cette évolution.
The Response of Children with Autism to Preferred Prosody During Instruction

Two related studies determined (a) if children with autism would have a preference for prosody of voice, or changes in voice pitch and stress placed on syllables, and (b) if the preferred prosody of voice is the most effective when used by their teachers. Twelve children with autism and 12 typical children selected their preferred prosody of voice for a story passage recorded by their teacher using monotonous, conversational, and enthusiastic prosodies. Significant preferences were revealed for 3 children with autism, who were then observed during classroom activities as they responded to teacher instructions in various prosodies. Results revealed that the children's responses to prosody of voice differed, with children less likely to respond if a monotonous prosody was used.
Certain Problems in Election Survey Methodology

This article describes some solutions to common problems in pre-election surveys drawing upon Gallup Poll experience. It touches upon problems in sampling, estimation, response validity, the undecided, measuring likelihood to vote, and measuring late trends in voter preference. In conclusion it cites demonstrable gains in accuracy that have followed application of the solutions described.
Photovoltaic Pixels for Neural Stimulation: Circuit Models and Performance

Photovoltaic conversion of pulsed light into pulsed electric current enables optically-activated neural stimulation with miniature wireless implants. In photovoltaic retinal prostheses, patterns of near-infrared light projected from video goggles onto subretinal arrays of photovoltaic pixels are converted into patterns of current to stimulate the inner retinal neurons. We describe a model of these devices and evaluate the performance of photovoltaic circuits, including the electrode-electrolyte interface. Characteristics of the electrodes measured in saline with various voltages, pulse durations, and polarities were modeled as voltage-dependent capacitances and Faradaic resistances. The resulting mathematical model of the circuit yielded dynamics of the electric current generated by the photovoltaic pixels illuminated by pulsed light. Voltages measured in saline with a pipette electrode above the pixel closely matched results of the model. Using the circuit model, our pixel design was optimized for maximum charge injection under various lighting conditions and for different stimulation thresholds. To speed discharge of the electrodes between the pulses of light, a shunt resistor was introduced and optimized for high frequency stimulation.
Efficient Geo-Fencing via Hybrid Hashing: A Combination of Bucket Selection and In-Bucket Binary Search

Geo-fencing, as a spatial join between points (moving objects) and polygons (spatial range), is widely used in emerging location-based services to trigger context-aware events. It faces the challenge of real-time processing a large number of time-variant complex polygons, when points are constantly moving. Following the filter-and-refine policy, in our previous work, we proposed to organize edges per polygon in hash tables to improve the performance of the refining stage. The number of edges, however, is uneven among buckets. As a result, some points that happen to match big buckets with many edges will have much longer responses than usual. In this article, we solve this problem from two aspects: (i) Constructing multiple parallel hash tables and dynamically selecting the bucket with fewest edges and (ii) sorting edges in a bucket so as to realize the crossing number algorithm by binary search. We further combine the two to suggest a hybrid hashing scheme that takes a better tradeoff between real-time pairing points with polygons and system overhead of building hash tables. Extensive analyses and evaluations on two real-world datasets confirm that the proposed scheme can effectively reduce the pairing time in terms of both the average and distribution.
Transcriptome Characterisation of the Ant Formica exsecta with New Insights into the Evolution of Desaturase Genes in Social Hymenoptera

Background Despite the recent sequencing of seven ant genomes, no genomic data are available for the genus Formica, an important group for the study of eusocial traits. We sequenced the transcriptome of the ant Formica exsecta with the 454 FLX Titanium technology from a pooled sample of workers from 70 Finnish colonies. Results About 1,000,000 reads were obtained from a normalised cDNA library. We compared the assemblers MIRA3.0 and Newbler2.6 and showed that the latter performed better on this dataset due to a new option which is dedicated to improve contig formation in low depth portions of the assemblies. The 29,579 contigs represent 27 Mb. 50% showed similarity with known proteins and 25% could be assigned a category of gene ontology. We found more than 13,000 high-quality single nucleotide polymorphisms. The Δ9 desaturase gene family is an important multigene family involved in chemical communication in insects. We found six Δ9 desaturases in this Formica exsecta transcriptome dataset that were used to reconstruct a maximum-likelihood phylogeny of insect desaturases and to test for signatures of positive selection in this multigene family in ant lineages. We found differences with previous phylogenies of this gene family in ants, and found two clades potentially under positive selection. Conclusion This first transcriptome reference sequence of Formica exsecta provided sequence and polymorphism data that will allow researchers working on Formica ants to develop studies to tackle the genetic basis of eusocial phenotypes. In addition, this study provided some general guidelines for de novo transcriptome assembly that should be useful for future transcriptome sequencing projects. Finally, we found potential signatures of positive selection in some clades of the Δ9 desaturase gene family in ants, which suggest the potential role of sequence divergence and adaptive evolution in shaping the large diversity of chemical cues in social insects.
Use of a database of structural alignments and phylogenetic trees in investigating the relationship between sequence and structural variability among homologous proteins.

The database PALI (Phylogeny and ALIgnment of homologous protein structures) consists of families of protein domains of known three-dimensional (3D) structure. In a PALI family, every member has been structurally aligned with every other member (pairwise) and also simultaneous superposition (multiple) of all the members has been performed. The database also contains 3D structure-based and structure-dependent sequence similarity-based phylogenetic dendrograms for all the families. The PALI release used in the present analysis comprises 225 families derived largely from the HOMSTRAD and SCOP databases. The quality of the multiple rigid-body structural alignments in PALI was compared with that obtained from COMPARER, which encodes a procedure based on properties and relationships. The alignments from the two procedures agreed very well and variations are seen only in the low sequence similarity cases often in the loop regions. A validation of Direct Pairwise Alignment (DPA) between two proteins is provided by comparing it with Pairwise alignment extracted from Multiple Alignment of all the members in the family (PMA). In general, DPA and PMA are found to vary rarely. The ready availability of pairwise alignments allows the analysis of variations in structural distances as a function of sequence similarities and number of topologically equivalent Calpha atoms. The structural distance metric used in the analysis combines root mean square deviation (r.m.s.d.) and number of equivalences, and is shown to vary similarly to r.m.s.d. The correlation between sequence similarity and structural similarity is poor in pairs with low sequence similarities. A comparison of sequence and 3D structure-based phylogenies for all the families suggests that only a few families have a radical difference in the two kinds of dendrograms. The difference could occur when the sequence similarity among the homologues is low or when the structures are subjected to evolutionary pressure for the retention of function. The PALI database is expected to be useful in furthering our understanding of the relationship between sequences and structures of homologous proteins and their evolution.
Inclusive Achievement Testing for Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Test Takers: Essential Considerations for Test Developers and Decision Makers

Substantial growth in the numbers of English language learners (ELLs) in the United States and Canada in recent years has significantly affected the educational systems of both countries. This article focuses on critical issues and concerns related to the assessment of ELLs in U.S. and Canadian schools and emphasizes assessment approaches for test developers and decision makers that will facilitate increased equity, meaningfulness, and accuracy in assessment and accountability efforts. It begins by examining the crucial issue of defining ELLs as a group. Next, it examines the impact of testing originating from the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) in the U.S. and government-mandated standards-driven testing in Canada by briefly describing each country's respective legislated testing requirements and outlining their consequences at several levels. Finally, the authors identify key points that test developers and decision makers in both contexts should consider in testing this ever-increasing group of students.
Perspective in comparisons of skin versus muscle blood flow.

to the editor: On grounds of their observations of elevated muscle blood flow in heated muscle, Heinonen et al. ([2][1]) call for reconsideration of how cardiac output is apportioned in hyperthermic humans. I hope those doing the reconsidering will bear in mind that venous occlusion plethysmography
The neurochemistry of peripheral nerve regeneration

ABSTRACT Peripheral nerve injuries (PNIs) can be most disabling, resulting in the loss of sensitivity, motor function and autonomic control in the involved anatomical segment. Although injured peripheral nerves are capable of regeneration, sub-optimal recovery of function is seen even with the best reconstruction. Distal axonal degeneration is an unavoidable consequence of PNI. There are currently few strategies aimed to maintain the distal pathway and/or target fidelity during regeneration across the zone of injury. The current state of the art approaches have been focussed on the site of nerve injury and not on their distal muscular targets or representative proximal cell bodies or central cortical regions. This is a comprehensive literature review of the neurochemistry of peripheral nerve regeneration and a state of the art analysis of experimental compounds (inorganic and organic agents) with demonstrated neurotherapeutic efficacy in improving cell body and neuron survival, reducing scar formation and maximising overall nerve regeneration.
The emotionally intelligent ministry: why it matters

Pizarro and Salovey hypothesise that religious systems are frequently “inherently emotionally intelligent” and that religious leaders may be experts in emotional regulation due to the inherent demands of their role. Despite such assertions, to date there appears to be little exploration of Emotional Intelligence (EI) amongst religious populations. Thus, suggesting that statements such as this may be based on supposition, speculation and stereotypes rather than grounded in sound empirical evidence. In an attempt to explore EI amongst religious systems, this study examined levels of EI amongst 226 Irish clergy. Participants completed the EI Scale. Results revealed that clergy levels of EI were lower than expected and below other diverse populations previously assessed using the same instrument. The emergence of such knowledge regarding clergy EI begins to suggest that religious systems may indeed not be conclaves of emotional abilities as previously assumed. Given the relevance and the potential value of employing EI abilities within the ministry, this result is both surprising and disconcerting.
Biostimulatory Effect Of Processed Sewage Sludge In Bioremediation Of Engine Oil Contaminated Soils

A study was conducted to evaluate the influence of sewage sludge on biodegradation of engine oil in contaminated soil. Soil samples were collected from a mechanics workshop in Sokoto metropolis. The Soil samples were taken to the laboratory for isolation of engine oil degrading bacteria. About 1 g of soil sample was used to inoculate 9 ml of trypticase soy broth and incubated at 28 o C for 24 h. The growth obtained was sub-cultured in mineral salt medium overlaid with crude oil and allowed to stand at 28 o C for 72 h. The culture obtained was then maintained on tryticase soy agar plates at 28 o C for 48 h. A combination of microscopy and biochemical tests was carried out to identify the colonies. The sewage sludge was obtained from sewage collection point located behind Jibril Aminu Hall of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto and processed (i.e. dried, grounded and sterilized). A portion of land obtained in a botanical garden was divided into small portions (30 X 30 cm) and the soil was excavated in-situ and sterilized in the laboratory. A polythene bag was subsequently used to demarcate between the sterilized soil and the garden soil. The sterilized soil plots were artificially contaminated with equal amount of used engine oil to represent a typical farmland oil spill. The plots were amended with various amount of processed sewage sludge i.e. 200 g, 300 g and 400 g respectively. A pure culture of the bacteria was maintained on trypticase soy broth and was introduced into the sterile amended soil. The plots were watered twice daily for ten days. The degree of biodegradation and heavy metal content were assessed using standard procedures and the results obtained indicate a remarkable reduction in poly aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) and heavy metal content.
Human Rights, Movements and Law: On Not Researching Legitimacy

This article explores the relationship between social movements, human rights and law at different scales. I compare ‘global constitutionalism’ and ‘subaltern cosmopolitanism’ as approaches to movements, rights and law. As sociologists, we are especially well placed to address certain assumptions on which these inter-disciplinary approaches rely. I argue that assumptions about the relationship between social movements and human rights that are fundamentally normative limit our understanding of the diversity of organisational forms through which human rights are being defined, and of the complexity of multi-scalar law through which claims to justice are being made. In particular, the importance of the state and national law for institutionalising human rights norms should not be neglected by privileging either local or international law as the legitimate focus of democratic claims for justice.
Medical students’ views about person-centred communication in dementia care

Adopting principles of person-centred communication has been highlighted as one strategy to improve care of people living with dementia (PLWD) in health and social care settings. However, person-centred communication is interpreted and applied variably in different settings, and healthcare professionals’ views about communicating with PLWD are under-explored. This study aimed to investigate medical students’ views about the principles and applicability of a model of person centred communication – the Dementia Model of Effective Communication (DeMEC) – to clinical practice. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected using questionnaires (n = 531), focus groups (n = 21) and interviews (n = 10). Students generally endorsed the person-centred approach to communication, but two aspects were highlighted as complex and divisive – the acceptability or otherwise of lying, and of communicating with family in advance of the PLWD. We discuss the nature of these communicative dilemmas, implications for the education and training of medical students, and future directions for research.
Inter- and Intra- Test Correlates of the TOEFL.

The present study provides validity information for the TOEFL by examining some of its interand intra-test correlates. Inter-test correlates included: 1) grades in an intensive English program, 2) accumulated scores from objective quizzes administered after each of 15 lessons in a course designed to teach listening comprehension and note taking skills, and 3) scores on the Comprehensive English Language Test (CELT) with subtests representing structure, listening comprehension and vocabulary abilities. In addition, intercorrelations were done within ability groups (high, medium and low, as measured by students' levels in their English program) to determine if correlation patterns vary according to the academic level of the student. Intra-test correlates consisted of investigations of correlations among subtests within the TOEFL. Factor analyses were used to aid in interpretation of the various correlation structures. The purpose of this study is to initiate a validation study of the content of the TOEFL. One factor was identified through factor analysis of TOEFL subtest scores, with the reading comprehension subtest having the highest factor loading. The interrelated nature of the TOEFL subtests is supported by positive correlations (greater than .50) within TOEFL subtests and between TOEFL and CELT subtests. A high correlation between the listening comprehension subtest of the TOEFL and another listening comprehension measure, the listening tracts, as well as a considerable correlation between listening tract scores and TOEFL totals, suggest that listening comprehension may be a separate skill that is significantly interrelated with total score success. Grades in an intensive English program are not predictors of TOEFL success, although relative academic level is.
Genome-Wide Estimates of Transposable Element Insertion and Deletion Rates in Drosophila Melanogaster

Abstract Knowing the rate at which transposable elements (TEs) insert and delete is critical for understanding their role in genome evolution. We estimated spontaneous rates of insertion and deletion for all known, active TE superfamilies present in a set of Drosophila melanogaster mutation-accumulation (MA) lines using whole genome sequence data. Our results demonstrate that TE insertions far outpace TE deletions in D. melanogaster. We found a significant effect of background genotype on TE activity, with higher rates of insertions in one MA line. We also found significant rate heterogeneity between the chromosomes, with both insertion and deletion rates elevated on the X relative to the autosomes. Further, we identified significant associations between TE activity and chromatin state, and tested for associations between TE activity and other features of the local genomic environment such as TE content, exon content, GC content, and recombination rate. Our results provide the most detailed assessment of TE mobility in any organism to date, and provide a useful benchmark for both addressing theoretical predictions of TE dynamics and for exploring large-scale patterns of TE movement in D. melanogaster and other species.