Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Age-Specificity of Toxoplasma gondii Seroprevalence in Sheep, Goats and Cattle on Subsistence Farms in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT Toxoplasma gondii is a zoonotic protozoan parasite that infects humans and domestic animals. In this study, the seroprevalence of T. gondii antibodies was investigated using serum samples collected from 83 sheep, 146 goats and 37 cattle from a dozen subsistence farms in Bangladesh. Fifty-eight out of 83 sheep (69.9%), 89 out of 146 goats (61.0%) and 10 out of 37 cattle (27.0%) were seropositive for the parasite. Seroprevalence in young goats (<1 year old) was significantly lower than that of the adult goats (>1 year old). In contrast, seroprevalence for young and adult sheep was similar. These results indicate that acquired infection with T. gondii occurs in this region of Bangladesh, at least among goats.
Natural Language Inference by Tree-Based Convolution and Heuristic Matching

In this paper, we propose the TBCNN-pair model to recognize entailment and contradiction between two sentences. In our model, a tree-based convolutional neural network (TBCNN) captures sentence-level semantics; then heuristic matching layers like concatenation, element-wise product/difference combine the information in individual sentences. Experimental results show that our model outperforms existing sentence encoding-based approaches by a large margin.
The Faces of Development: A Review of Early Face Processing over Childhood

The understanding of the adult proficiency in recognizing and extracting information from faces is still limited despite the number of studies over the last decade. Our knowledge on the development of these capacities is even more restricted, as only a handful of such studies exist. Here we present a combined reanalysis of four ERP studies in children from 4 to 15 years of age and adults (n = 424, across the studies), which investigated face processing in implicit and explicit tasks. We restricted these analyses to what was common across studies: early ERP components and upright face processing across all four studies and the inversion effect, investigated in three of the studies. These data demonstrated that processing faces implicates very rapid neural activity, even in young children at the P1 componentwith protracted age-related change in both P1 and N170, that were sensitive to the different task demands. Inversion produced latency and amplitude effects on the P1 from the youngest group, but on N170 only starting in mid childhood. These developmental data suggest that there are functionally different sources of the P1 and N170, related to the processing of different aspects of faces.
A New Method for Determination of Parameters in Sewer Pollutant Transformation Process Model

Understanding pollutant transformation in sewers is important in controlling odor emission from pressure mains as well as in assessing organic pollutant removal capacity of gravity sewers. Sewer process models have thus been developed to quantify the pollutant transformation processes under various sewer conditions. The quantification largely depends on model parameter values, in particular the kinetic and stoichiometric parameters related to microbial activities. The current approaches not only involve a large amount of experimental work but also may induce significant errors when microbial reactions cannot be differentiated effectively during the experiments. Therefore, this study is aimed at developing a new method that can reduce experimental work significantly. The proposed method utilizes a genetic algorithm (GA) to enable the determination with a single set of batch experiments. To study the feasibility of the proposed method, a set of 72-hr batch experiments was first conducted for determining the parameters of a sewer model developed in this study, which adopted a full version of the International Water Association (IWA) Activated Sludge Model No. 3 (ASM3) to describe the microbial activities in sewers. The results were then verified with two different sets of the batch experiments. Furthermore, dynamic variation data of dissolved oxygen level were collected at the outlet of a 1.5-km gravity sewer to validate the determined parameters. All the results showed that the proposed parameter determination method is effective.
The BLAST Sequence Analysis Tool

Summary The comparison of nucleotide or protein sequences from the same or different organisms is a very powerful tool in molecular biology. By finding similarities between sequences, scientists can infer the function of newly sequenced genes, predict new members of gene families, and explore evolutionary relationships. Now that whole genomes are being sequenced, sequence similarity searching can be used to predict the location and function of protein-coding and transcriptionregulation regions in genomic DNA. Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) (1, 2) is the tool most frequently used for calculating sequence similarity. BLAST comes in variations for use with different query sequences against different databases. All BLAST applications, as well as information on which BLAST program to use and other help documentation, are listed on the BLAST homepage [http://www.ncbi. nlm.nih. gov/BLAST/]. This chapter will focus more on how BLAST works, its output, and how both the output and program itself can be further manipulated or customized, rather than on how to use BLAST [http://www.ncbi. nlm.nih. gov/Education/BLASTinfo/information3.html] or interpret BLAST results.
Isometric Contractions Are More Analgesic Than Isotonic Contractions for Patellar Tendon Pain: An In-Season Randomized Clinical Trial

Objective: This study aimed to compare the immediate analgesic effects of 2 resistance programs in in-season athletes with patellar tendinopathy (PT). Resistance training is noninvasive, a principle stimulus for corticospinal and neuromuscular adaptation, and may be analgesic. Design: Within-season randomized clinical trial. Data analysis was conducted blinded to group. Setting: Subelite volleyball and basketball competitions. Participants: Twenty jumping athletes aged more than 16 years, participating in games/trainings 3 times per week with clinically diagnosed PT. Interventions: Two quadriceps resistance protocols were compared; (1) isometric leg extension holds at 60 degrees knee flexion (80% of their maximal voluntary isometric contraction) or (2) isotonic leg extension (at 80% of their 8 repetition maximum) 4 times per week for 4 weeks. Time under load and rest between sets was matched between groups. Main Outcome Measures: (1) Pain (0-10 numerical rating score) during single leg decline squat (SLDS), measured preintervention and postintervention sessions. (2) VISA-P, a questionnaire about tendon pain and function, completed at baseline and after 4 weeks. Results: Twenty athletes with PT (18 men, mean 22.5 ± 4.7 years) participated (isotonic n = 10, isometric n = 10). Baseline median SLDS pain was 5/10 for both groups (isotonic range 1-8, isometric range 2-8). Isometric contractions produced significantly greater immediate analgesia (P < 0.002). Week one analgesic response positively correlated with improvements in VISA-P at 4 weeks (r2 = 0.64). Conclusions: Both protocols appear efficacious for in-season athletes to reduce pain, however, isometric contractions demonstrated significantly greater immediate analgesia throughout the 4-week trial. Greater analgesia may increase the ability to load or perform.
Can I Play Too? Physical Activity Engagement of Children with Developmental Coordination Disorders

Background. Children with developmental coordination disorders (DCD) are less physically active and have significantly different patterns of social and physical play than their well-coordinated peers. Factors. The impact of motor incoordination on physical activity engagements throughout life is influenced by a multitude of factors. External factors such as the social, cultural and physical environment may act as either supports or barriers to active physical involvement. Individual characteristics including the unique physical and psychological attributes of the child with motor coordination difficulties also impact on engagement in physically active occupations. Result. A model is proposed that conceptualizes the multiple dimensions which impinge on the decisions to select, engage and persist in physical activities for children with developmental coordination disorders. Practice Implications. The occupational therapist's role in promoting a balanced and physically active lifestyle is explored. Interventions to increase physical activity participation for children with DCD are dependent on a full understanding of the complex, multi-dimensional correlates of occupational engagement.
Production of massless fermions during inflation

We compute the one loop self energy, in a locally de Sitter background, for a massless fermion which is Yukawa-coupled to a massless, minimally coupled scalar. We then solve the modified Dirac equation resulting from inclusion of the self energy. We find faster-than-exponential growth in the fermion wave function, consistent with the production of fermions through a process in which a scalar and a fermion-anti-fermion pair are ripped out of the vacuum by inflation.
Efficacy of a parent-youth teamwork intervention to promote adherence in pediatric asthma.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether a parent-youth teamwork intervention improved medication adherence and related outcomes among youth with asthma. METHODS We used a randomized clinical trial with 48 youth (aged 9-15 years) assigned to 1 of 3 groups: Teamwork Intervention (TI), Asthma Education (AE), or Standard Care (SC). Treatment occurred across 2 months, with a 3-month follow-up assessment. Adherence to inhaled corticosteroids was assessed via the MDILog-II. Parent-adolescent conflict, asthma functional severity, and spirometry assessments were obtained pre-treatment, post-treatment, and on follow-up. Mixed linear model analysis was used to evaluate group and time effects for outcome measures. RESULTS TI group had significantly higher adherence and lower functional severity scores than AE or SC conditions, and lower parent-reported conflict and a trend for higher spirometry values compared with the SC group. CONCLUSIONS Results suggest support for the efficacy of TI for improving medication adherence as youth acquire more responsibility for their asthma management.
On the mechanisms improving dual-task performance with pratice

Numerous studies showed that people have difficulty performing two tasks at the same time. This difficulty is indicated by additional performance costs in dual-task situations when compared to single-task situations, i.e. dual-task costs. However, recent evidence has shown a substantial reduction of dual-task costs through practice. The finding of dual-task costs at the beginning and the reduction thereof at the end of practice indicates that this reduction must be accomplished via specific learning mechanisms. Although such mechanisms have been addressed in previous studies, the specific mechanisms contributing to practice related dual-task cost reduction remained unknown. The aim of four studies in the present work is to specify these mechanisms by applying a dual-task situation including a visual and an auditory component task (Schumacher et al., 2001). Investigations on learning mechanisms within the component tasks aimed to identify loci of stage shortening in these tasks through practice. For the first time I showed that component task processing in dual-task situations is mainly shortened through a shortening at the response selection stage. In contrast, investigations on learning mechanisms between the component tasks focussed on the acquisition of task coordination skills. Here I provided evidence that these skills are acquired during dual-task practice and there is no acquisition of these skills during single-task practice. Additionally, I demonstrated that these skills are transferable to alternative dual-task situations. There is, however, no evidence for transfer of these skills to task switching and attentional blink paradigms. In order to further specify the result of the learning mechanisms, I showed that dual-task performance in the visual but not in the auditory task is stable after practice has finished. The present findings on learning mechanisms are integrated into a model of practiced dual-task performance, the latent bottleneck model, and new assumptions in the framework of this model are discussed. und neue Annahmen im Rahmen dieses Modells diskutiert.
Food Variety at 2 Years of Age is Related to Duration of Breastfeeding

The aim of this study was to investigate the association of breastfeeding duration and food variety at 2 years of age. A secondary data analysis was undertaken of the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study, an ongoing longitudinal study. Data collected from a single 24 h dietary recall of 1905, 2 year-old children were used to calculate two food variety scores; a core food variety score (CFVS) and a fruit and vegetable variety score (FVVS). Multivariate linear regression analysis was used to identify those factors independently associated with the CFVS and FVVS. The mean CFVS was 7.52 (range 1–18) of a possible 34 food items or groups and the mean FVVS was 2.84 (range 0–10) of a possible 16 food items or groups. Breastfeeding duration was independently directly associated with the CFVS (p < 0.001) and FVVS (p < 0.001). In addition, maternal age was independently directly associated with the CFVS (p < 0.001) and FVVS (p = 0.001) as was maternal education (CFVS p < 0.001 and FVVS p = 0.043). The presence of older siblings was independently inversely associated with the CFVS (p = 0.003) and FVVS (p = 0.001). This study demonstrated a direct modest association between breastfeeding duration and food variety in 2 year-old children, independent of maternal demographic characteristics known to predict food variety in children. This finding supports the hypothesis that flavours transferred in breast milk provide repeated early exposure to different tastes and positively shape children’s food preferences and food variety.
Spinor types in infinite dimensions.

The Cartan Dirac classification of spinors into types is generalized to infinite dimensions. The main conclusion is that, in the statistical interpretation where such spinors are functions on Z2 , any real or quaternionic structure involves switching zeroes and ones. There results a maze of equivalence classes of each type. Some examples are shown in L2(T) . The classification of spinors leads to a parametrization of certain non-associative algebras introduced speculatively by Kaplansky. Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary: 81R10; Secondary: 15A66.
Advances in the understanding and management of T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia

T-prolymphocytic leukemia (T-PLL) is a rare T-cell neoplasm with an aggressive clinical course. Leukemic T-cells exhibit a post-thymic T-cell phenotype (Tdt−, CD1a−, CD5+, CD2+ and CD7+) and are generally CD4+/CD8−, but CD4+/CD8+ or CD8+/CD4− T-PLL have also been reported. The hallmark of T-PLL is the rearrangement of chromosome 14 involving genes for the subunits of the T-cell receptor (TCR) complex, leading to overexpression of the proto-oncogene TCL1. In addition, molecular analysis shows that T-PLL exhibits substantial mutational activation of the IL2RG-JAK1-JAK3-, STAT5B axis. T-PLL patients have a poor prognosis, due to a poor response to conventional chemotherapy. Monoclonal antibody therapy with antiCD52-alemtuzumab has considerably improved outcomes, but the responses to treatment are transient; hence, patients who achieve a response to therapy are considered for stem cell transplantation (SCT). This combined approach has extended the median survival to four years or more. Nevertheless, new approaches using well-tolerated therapies that target growth and survival signals are needed for most patients unable to receive intensive chemotherapy.
Genomic Association Analysis Suggests Chromosome 12 Locus Influencing Antihypertensive Response to Thiazide Diuretic

We conducted a genome-wide association study to identify novel genes influencing diastolic blood pressure (BP) response to hydrochlorothiazide, a commonly prescribed thiazide diuretic preferred for the treatment of high BP. Affymetrix GeneChip Human Mapping 100K Arrays were used to measure single nucleotide polymorphisms across the 22 autosomes in 194 non-Hispanic black subjects and 195 non-Hispanic white subjects with essential hypertension selected from opposite tertiles of the race- and sex-specific distributions of age-adjusted diastolic BP response to hydrochlorothiazide (25 mg daily, PO, for 4 weeks). The black sample consisted of 97 “good” responders (diastolic BP response [mean±SD]=−18.3±4.2 mm Hg; age=47.1±6.1 years; 51.5% women) and 97 “poor” responders (diastolic BP response=−0.18±4.3; age=47.4±6.5 years; 51.5% women). Haplotype trend regression identified a region of chromosome 12q15 in which haplotypes constructed from 3 successive single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs317689, rs315135, and rs7297610) in proximity to lysozyme (LYZ), YEATS domain containing 4 (YEATS4), and fibroblast growth receptor substrate 2 (FRS2) were significantly associated with diastolic BP response (nominal P=2.39×10−7; Bonferroni corrected P=0.024; simulated experiment-wise P=0.040). Genotyping of 35 additional single nucleotide polymorphisms selected to “tag” linkage disequilibrium blocks in these genes provided corroboration that variation in LYZ and YEATS4 was associated with diastolic BP response in a statistically independent data set of 291 black subjects and in the sample of 294 white subjects. These results support the use of genome-wide association analyses to identify novel genes influencing antihypertensive drug responses.
An ECG-Based Signal Key Establishment Protocol in Body Area Networks

Body Sensor Networks (BSNs) provide continuous body health monitoring and analysis of physiological parameters. A high degree of security and privacy protection for BSN is extremely required. In this paper, a highly flexible authentication and key establishment protocol based on ECG signals and fuzzy commitment, namely ESKE, is proposed. The uniqueness of ECG signals guarantees that ESKE can provide long, random, low latency, distinctive and temporal variant keys. The fuzzy commitment assures ESKE scheme can tolerate the high degree of noise and variability inherently in ECG signals. A priori distribution of keying material is not required in ESKE. Experiment results shows that ESKE can not only guarantee data confidentiality, authenticity and Integrity, but also resist malicious attacks efficiently.
A Dissociation Between Linguistic and Communicative Abilities in the Human Brain

Although language is an effective vehicle for communication, it is unclear how linguistic and communicative abilities relate to each other. Some researchers have argued that communicative message generation involves perspective taking (mentalizing), and—crucially—that mentalizing depends on language. We employed a verbal communication paradigm to directly test whether the generation of a communicative action relies on mentalizing and whether the cerebral bases of communicative message generation are distinct from parts of cortex sensitive to linguistic variables. We found that dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, a brain area consistently associated with mentalizing, was sensitive to the communicative intent of utterances, irrespective of linguistic difficulty. In contrast, left inferior frontal cortex, an area known to be involved in language, was sensitive to the linguistic demands of utterances, but not to communicative intent. These findings show that communicative and linguistic abilities rely on cerebrally (and computationally) distinct mechanisms.
Effect of high argon pressure and modified atmosphere packaging on the white mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) physico-chemical and microbiological properties

Summary The effect of high argon pressure (HAP) combined with modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) processing on the physico-chemical and microbiological characteristics of white mushrooms were assessed during 15 days of storage at 4 °C. The comparisons between different samples showed, HAP samples exhibited the smaller rate of weight loss and higher increase in total flavonoid and protein contents. Weight losses after 15 days of storage were 2.3%, 3.8%, 4.8% and 7.6% for HAP, MAP, HAP-MAP and untreated mushrooms, respectively. Furthermore, MAP treatment showed smaller polyphenol oxidase (PPO, E.C. 1.14.18.1) activity during storage. PPO activity in white mushrooms increased during the 15 days of storage from initial activity of 1 009 U·min-1g-1 to 2 070, 2 418, 2 976 and 3 174 U·min-1g-1 corresponding to MAP, HAP-MAP, HAP and control treatments, respectively. MAP-HAP treatment revealed beneficial effects on white mushroom colour, total phenol content and ascorbic acid content, and moderate effect on total flavonoid and polyphenol oxidase (PPO). All treatments were effective in retarding mushroom colour change. Thus, application of MAP-HAP could extend the storage life of white mushrooms to 15 days at 4 °C.
A Survey of Iranian EFL Teachers' and Learners' Perceptions Toward Authentic Listening Materials at University Level

This study intends to deal with attitudes of teachers and learners toward authentic listening materials at pre- intermediate level. Studies have indicated the positive effect of authentic listening materials on motivation and listening comprehension ability in learners of English as a foreign language (Nuttall, 1996; Peacock, 1997; Miller, 2005; Field, 2008). It focused on EFL teachers and students at pre intermediate proficiency level. Participants included 60 students, from both gender; male and female university students studying at Rodaki Higher Institute Education in the fields of: Accounting, Computer Engineering and Commercial Management and also 30 teachers who taught listening at Rodaki Higher Institute Education. The students were randomly selected and assigned to two groups. Then, Oxford Placement test as a standard test was administered to the participant in order to determine their proficiency level. Then, the participants were divided into two groups of control and experiment. The experiment group received the listening materials taken from UK radio program whereas the other group received simplified listening materials taken from the authentic listening materials. Afterwards, to be sure that they know what authentic materials are, they were exposed to both of related materials, then the questionnaire was distributed among them, the results taken from the questionnaire showed that the participants of this study prefer authentic materials and have positive attitudes toward using them. By the same token, the analysis of teachers’ questionnaire also showed their satisfaction with authentic listening materials. These findings can have implications for language learning/teaching, and curriculum development paving the way for educational policy makers, teachers and learners to introduce authentic listening materials to EFL learners at pre- intermediate proficiency level.