Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MODULARITY, NOISE, AND NATURAL SELECTION

Most biological systems are formed by component parts that are to some degree interrelated. Groups of parts that are more associated among themselves and are relatively autonomous from others are called modules. One of the consequences of modularity is that biological systems usually present an unequal distribution of the genetic variation among traits. Estimating the covariance matrix that describes these systems is a difficult problem due to a number of factors such as poor sample sizes and measurement errors. We show that this problem will be exacerbated whenever matrix inversion is required, as in directional selection reconstruction analysis. We explore the consequences of varying degrees of modularity and signal‐to‐noise ratio on selection reconstruction. We then present and test the efficiency of available methods for controlling noise in matrix estimates. In our simulations, controlling matrices for noise vastly improves the reconstruction of selection gradients. We also perform an analysis of selection gradients reconstruction over a New World Monkeys skull database to illustrate the impact of noise on such analyses. Noise‐controlled estimates render far more plausible interpretations that are in full agreement with previous results.
Assessment of critical thinking ability in medical students

In this study conducted with 80 first‐year students in a graduate medical course at the Australian National University, Canberra, students’ critical thinking skills were assessed using the Watson‐Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (Forms A and B) in a test‐retest design. Results suggested that overall subjects retained consistent patterns of ability in critical thinking over the year. Subjects aged 30 years and over were more likely to perform better on the tests than subjects aged under 30. However, there was a significantly lower group mean on Form B than on Form A. Subjects with an above‐mean score on Form A, or subjects aged 30 years and over, were more likely to be associated with a reduced score on Form B than were subjects with a below‐mean score on Form A, or aged less than 30 years. In motivational terms, it is suggested that subjects who had more highly developed critical thinking skills, and older subjects, conducted a more realistic effort/reward analysis before the administration of Form B, and were less willing to put effort into a test that was not an assessable component of their medical school curriculum, than were other students. For the design of assessment items in higher education, this would suggest that assessment weightings need to reflect accurately the size of the reward, or possible outcome, of completing those assessments if students are to work to their ability.
Advanced magnetic resonance neuroimaging in bulbar and limb onset early amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Introduction: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal and most common motor neuron disease, caused by progressive loss of motor neurons. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopic (MRS) studies detect pathological changes in neuronal fibers in vivo. We evaluated the role of DTI and MRS in early course of the disease, which may prove beneficial in the early diagnosis and better management. Materials and Methods: Twenty-one patients with ALS and 13 age-matched controls received 1.5T DTI and three-dimensional multi-voxel MRS. Fractional anisotropy (FA), apparent diffusion coefficient, N-acetyl aspartate (NAA)/Creatine (Cr), and NAA/Choline (Ch) ratios were analyzed in various regions of the brain and compared with healthy controls. ALS patients were classified as definite, possible, and probable category, and patients were also studied in limb versus bulbar onset. Results: Decreased FA and increase mean diffusivity values in regions of corticospinal tract (CST) and corpus callosum (CC) was consistent finding in definite and probable disease category (P < 0.05). In possible disease, CC involvement was not significant. NAA/Cr and NAA/Ch ratios were lower in CC and regions of CST. However, in possible disease, CC involvement was not significant, while regions of CST were showing significant reduction in NAA/Cr and NAA/Ch ratios (P < 0.05). Conclusion: DTI and MRS detect changes associated with ALS even in the early phase of the disease. Bulbar onset and limb onset ALS patients show different pattern of involvement. Extramotor involvement suggested by CC involvement is a feature seen in bulbar onset patient and can suggest poor outcome in such patients. The present findings may be helpful for designing further studies in the direction of more early diagnosis of disease and its management.
Subjective Political Efficacy as a Measure of Diffuse Support

SINCE the publication of David Easton's A Systems Analysis of Political Life, "diffuse support" has become a widely researched political attitude. Diffuse support encompasses affect for the entire political system, affect which is not contingent upon specific rewards or deprivations (Easton, 1965:272-74). Underlying diffuse support are sentiments of legitimacy. In the case of the political regime and political authorities, these consist of perceptions that political institutions, norms, and procedures and the behavior of incumbent officials conform to "moral principles" and "what is right and proper" (Easton, 1965:278-79). Operationalizing diffuse support has proved to be no easy task. In essence, the difficulty lies in constructing a measure of diffuse support that is not contaminated by short-term partisan considerations such as the popularity of incumbent officials and current government policies. The crux of the measurement problem is this: can indicators of system affect be empirically differentiated from indicators of incumbent affect (Muller and Jukam, 1977; Citrin, 1974; Miller, 1974). In Easton's terms, can indicators of diffuse support be separated from indicators of specific support (Easton, 1965:267-72; for discussion of this issue see Loewenberg, 1971). Political trust and the sense of political efficacy are among the most frequently used measures of diffuse support. Both attitudes appear to tap sentiments of legitimacy. As operationalized by the SRC, trust
Quantifying Uncertainties in N2O Emission Due to N Fertilizer Application in Cultivated Areas

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential approximately 298 times greater than that of CO2. In 2006, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated N2O emission due to synthetic and organic nitrogen (N) fertilization at 1% of applied N. We investigated the uncertainty on this estimated value, by fitting 13 different models to a published dataset including 985 N2O measurements. These models were characterized by (i) the presence or absence of the explanatory variable “applied N”, (ii) the function relating N2O emission to applied N (exponential or linear function), (iii) fixed or random background (i.e. in the absence of N application) N2O emission and (iv) fixed or random applied N effect. We calculated ranges of uncertainty on N2O emissions from a subset of these models, and compared them with the uncertainty ranges currently used in the IPCC-Tier 1 method. The exponential models outperformed the linear models, and models including one or two random effects outperformed those including fixed effects only. The use of an exponential function rather than a linear function has an important practical consequence: the emission factor is not constant and increases as a function of applied N. Emission factors estimated using the exponential function were lower than 1% when the amount of N applied was below 160 kg N ha−1. Our uncertainty analysis shows that the uncertainty range currently used by the IPCC-Tier 1 method could be reduced.
The development of children with ADHD in day treatment centres after school hours

The behavioural and emotional development of children with ADHD visiting day treatment centres after school hours is described and the childrearing factors that govern positive development explored. Test scores on the Child behaviour checklist (CBCL) and ADHD behavioural symptoms rating scale were obtained over a period of nine months, in a sample of 86 children with ADHD, and related to the activities of the professional care‐givers. Behavioural control mixed with affectionate and emotional support reduced the ADHD symptoms at the follow‐up. According to the CBCL measures, the overall emotional and behavioural problems of the children did not improve. This suggests that prolongation of the day treatment is still required after nine months.
An international project to confirm soviet‐era results on immunological and teratological effects of RF field exposure in wistar rats and comments on Grigoriev et al. [2010]

Results of key Soviet‐era studies dealing with effects on the immune system and teratological consequences in rats exposed to radiofrequency (RF) fields serve, in part, as a basis for setting exposure limits in the USSR and the current RF standards in Russia. The World Health Organization's (WHO) International EMF Project considered these Soviet results important enough that they should be confirmed using more modern methods. Since the Soviet papers did not contain comprehensive details on how the results were obtained, Professor Yuri Grigoriev worked with Dr. Bernard Veyret to agree on the final study protocol and to conduct separate studies in Moscow and Bordeaux under the same protocol. The International Oversight Committee (IOC) provided oversight on the conduct of the studies and was the firewall committee that dealt with the sponsors and researchers. This paper gives the IOC comments and conclusions on the differing results between the two studies. Bioelectromagnetics 32:325–330, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Religious Orientation and Complexity of Thought about Existential Concerns

Three aspects of Allport's original concept of mature religion appear to be omitted from his later, highly-popular concept of religion as an intrinsic end in itself. These aspects are (a) readiness to face existential questions without reducing their complexity, (b) perception of religious doubts as positive, and (c) openness to future change in one's religious views. Batson and Ventis claim that these three aspects are included in Batson's concept of religion as a quest. Consistent with this claim, evidence is presented which indicates that the quest orientation correlates positively with greater cognitive complexity in dealing with existential concerns, while the intrinsic, end orientation does not.
Predicting Cancer Drug Response by Proteomic Profiling

Purpose: Accurate prediction of an individual patient's drug response is an important prerequisite of personalized medicine. Recent pharmacogenomics research in chemosensitivity prediction has studied the gene-drug correlation based on transcriptional profiling. However, proteomic profiling will more directly solve the current functional and pharmacologic problems. We sought to determine whether proteomic signatures of untreated cells were sufficient for the prediction of drug response. Experimental Design: In this study, a machine learning model system was developed to classify cell line chemosensitivity exclusively based on proteomic profiling. Using reverse-phase protein lysate microarrays, protein expression levels were measured by 52 antibodies in a panel of 60 human cancer cell (NCI-60) lines. The model system combined several well-known algorithms, including random forests, Relief, and the nearest neighbor methods, to construct the protein expression–based chemosensitivity classifiers. The classifiers were designed to be independent of the tissue origin of the cells. Results: A total of 118 classifiers of the complete range of drug responses (sensitive, intermediate, and resistant) were generated for the evaluated anticancer drugs, one for each agent. The accuracy of chemosensitivity prediction of all the evaluated 118 agents was significantly higher (P < 0.02) than that of random prediction. Furthermore, our study found that the proteomic determinants for chemosensitivity of 5-fluorouracil were also potential diagnostic markers of colon cancer. Conclusions: The results showed that it was feasible to accurately predict chemosensitivity by proteomic approaches. This study provides a basis for the prediction of drug response based on protein markers in the untreated tumors.
Correlation of Cerebral Hypoxic-Ischemic T2 Changes With Tissue Alterations in Water Content and Protein Extravasation

Background and Purpose— Age-dependent changes in T2-weighted MR images have been reported in cerebral hypoxia-ischemia. However, the biophysical mechanisms responsible for the image changes remain poorly defined. We investigated whether cerebral hypoxia-ischemia–induced T2 changes correlate with alterations in either water content or protein extravasation. Methods— One- and 4-week-old rats were subjected to unilateral carotid artery occlusion plus hypoxia in 8% oxygen. T2 images were acquired before, during, and 1 or 24 hours after hypoxia-ischemia. Blood-brain barrier disruption and brain edema were evaluated by immunohistological detection of IgG extravasation and measurement of water content by dry-wet weight and specific gravity methods. Results— In 1-week-old rats, T2 values, areas of hyperintensity on T2-weighted images, and water content in the ipsilateral hemisphere increased during hypoxia-ischemia, recovered at 1 hour after hypoxia-ischemia, and increased again at 24 hours after hypoxia-ischemia. Extravasation of IgG occurred during hypoxia-ischemia and remained detectable 24 hours after hypoxia-ischemia. In 4-week-old rats, an increase in T2 or extravasation of IgG did not occur until 24 hours after hypoxia-ischemia despite a comparable elevation in water content during and soon after hypoxia-ischemia. Conclusions— T2 imaging appears reliable for detecting edema associated with disruption of the blood-brain barrier but not necessarily an increase in cerebral water or plasma proteins alone. The different hypoxic-ischemic changes in T2 in immature and older brain are associated with differences in alterations in water content plus extravasation of protein, consistent with age-dependent differences in hypoxic-ischemic alterations in vascular permeability.
Prediction of Cognitive Behavior Treatment Outcome for Children with Anxiety Disorders: Therapeutic Relationship and Homework Compliance

We examined a non-specific or relationship variable as well as a specific or technical variable (i.e. homework compliance) and their prediction of cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) outcome for children with anxiety disorders. Therapist ratings of the therapeutic relationship (TR), but not homework compliance (HC) predicted CBT outcome at posttreatment ( n = 138) and at 1-year follow-up ( n = 121) for anxious children (aged 9 to 13 years). Findings from this study suggest the therapeutic relationship is a hardy non-specific factor in CBT of anxious children. Implications for the treatment of children with anxiety disorders using CBT and recommendations for research are offered.
Power Consumption Prediction and Power-Aware Packing in Consolidated Environments

Consolidation of workloads has emerged as a key mechanism to dampen the rapidly growing energy expenditure within enterprise-scale data centers. To gainfully utilize consolidation-based techniques, we must be able to characterize the power consumption of groups of colocated applications. Such characterization is crucial for effective prediction and enforcement of appropriate limits on power consumption-power budgets-within the data center. We identify two kinds of power budgets: 1) an average budget to capture an upper bound on long-term energy consumption within that level and 2) a sustained budget to capture any restrictions on sustained draw of current above a certain threshold. Using a simple measurement infrastructure, we derive power profiles-statistical descriptions of the power consumption of applications. Based on insights gained from detailed profiling of several applications-both individual and consolidated-we develop models for predicting average and sustained power consumption of consolidated applications. We conduct an experimental evaluation of our techniques on a Xen-based server that consolidates applications drawn from a diverse pool. For a variety of consolidation scenarios, we are able to predict average power consumption within five percent error margin and sustained power within 10 percent error margin. Using prediction techniques allows us to ensure safe yet efficient system operation-in a representative case, we are able to improve the number of applications consolidated on a server from two to three (compared to existing baseline techniques) by choosing the appropriate power state that satisfies the power budgets associated with the server.
Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antibodies: A potentially treatable cause of encephalitis in the intensive care unit

Objective: To report the occurrence of an unusual neurologic disorder requiring admission to the intensive care unit. Design: Analysis of an observational cohort study of 31 patients with encephalitis admitted over a 4-yr period. Setting: Neurologic intensive care unit in a tertiary referral center. Patients: We identified N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antibodies in six patients (two male and four female). All seropositive patients presented with a psychiatric prodrome, before developing seizures and obtundation requiring intensive care unit admission. They exhibited limb and truncal stereotypies and orofacial dyskinesias upon weaning sedation. Two patients had ovarian tumors. Interventions: Patients were treated with sedation, antiepileptic drugs, and immunotherapy. One patient received a magnesium infusion and ketamine. Measurements and Main Results: N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antibodies were identified in serum samples by an immunofluorescent cell-based assay. Three patients made a good but slow recovery; two were left with severe neurologic deficits; and one died after return to the referring hospital. These patients accounted for approximately 20% of all patients admitted with encephalitis to this referral center. Conclusions: N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antibodies should be tested in patients with hyperkinetic encephalitis and neuropsychiatric prodrome admitted to the intensive care unit. The disorder is probably not rare and is potentially treatable.
Positioning (in) the discipline: undergraduate students' negotiations of disciplinary discourses

This paper is drawn from a longitudinal case study in which the authors have tracked the progress of 20 Social Science students over the course of their undergraduate degrees at a historically ‘white’ South African university. The students are all from disadvantaged educational backgrounds and/or speakers of English as a second language. The paper draws on post-structuralist and post-colonial theory to trace the process by which students position and reposition themselves in relation to disciplinary discourses over the course of their senior years. The students both absorb and resist the values of their disciplines. The authors argue that the process of writing in their disciplines is also a process of working out their own identities as they try to reconcile their home discourses with those of the institution and their peers, or in some cases, confirm or shed their home identities.
Brain tissue volume changes following weight gain in adults with anorexia nervosa.

OBJECTIVE To measure brain volume deficits among underweight patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) compared to control participants and evaluate the reversibility of these deficits with short-term weight restoration. METHOD Brain volume changes in gray matter (GM), white matter (WM), and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were examined in 32 adult women with AN and compared to 21, age and body mass index-range matched control women. RESULTS Patients with AN had a significant increase in GM (p = .006, η(2) = 0.14) and WM volume (p = .001, η(2) = 0.19) following weight restoration. Patients on average had lower levels of GM at low weight (647.63 ± 62.07 ml) compared to controls (679.93 ± 53.31 ml), which increased with weight restoration (662.64 ± 69.71 ml), but did not fully normalize. DISCUSSION This study suggests that underweight adult patients with AN have reduced GM and WM volumes that increase with short-term weight restoration.
Evaluation of an Energy Loss-Minimization Algorithm for EVs Based on Induction Motor

This work addresses the problem of optimal selection of the flux level in induction motors used in electric vehicles (EVs). The basic function of a fully electric powertrain controller is to generate electric torque (force) which is required at any time by the driver. But, it is wellknown that the flux level used in a controller for induction motors offers an extra degree of freedom that can be used to maximise energy efficiency. The induction motor is an efficient motor when working close to its rated operating point (Zeraoulia, Benbouzid et al. 2006). However, at light loads the efficiency is greatly reduced when magnetization flux is maintained at nominal value. In induction motor drives for EVs, where real operation conditions are significantly different from rated conditions, the energy saving control is crucial for improving the running distance per charge.
Multi-Dimensional Tumor Detection in Automated Whole Breast Ultrasound Using Topographic Watershed

Automated whole breast ultrasound (ABUS) is becoming a popular screening modality for whole breast examination. Compared to conventional handheld ultrasound, ABUS achieves operator-independent and is feasible for mass screening. However, reviewing hundreds of slices in an ABUS image volume is time-consuming. A computer-aided detection (CADe) system based on watershed transform was proposed in this study to accelerate the reviewing. The watershed transform was applied to gather similar tissues around local minima to be homogeneous regions. The likelihoods of being tumors of the regions were estimated using the quantitative morphology, intensity, and texture features in the 2-D/3-D false positive reduction (FPR). The collected database comprised 68 benign and 65 malignant tumors. As a result, the proposed system achieved sensitivities of 100% (133/133), 90% (121/133), and 80% (107/133) with FPs/pass of 9.44, 5.42, and 3.33, respectively. The figure of merit of the combination of three feature sets is 0.46 which is significantly better than that of other feature sets (p-value <; 0.05). In summary, the proposed CADe system based on the multi-dimensional FPR using the integrated feature set is promising in detecting tumors in ABUS images.