Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biology, learning, and evolution of vocality: Biosemiotics of birdsong

Abstract Birdsongs are acoustic signs that evince parallels to the symbols of verbal language. Learning is the semiotic feature that makes a birdsong more similar to typical symbolic signs than a birdcall. In contrast to calls, most birdsongs have to be learned. The aim of this paper is to emphasize that the similarities between birdsong and verbal language can be addressed by following a biological standpoint, given the shared mechanisms underlying vocal learning in birds and humans, to take a comparative perspective on the biology and evolution of these species. The reason for language’s appearance in the evolutionary scene could be explained as the chance to remain grounded in communication skills that existed in other animals. Even if the referential power of animal vocalizations is far from that of our words, both objectively and mentally, the comparative data mentioned here allows us to support the idea that the vocal production of some bird species and others animals can be considered a natural precursor of language.
The Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factor NEUROG3 Is Required for Development of the Human Endocrine Pancreas

Neurogenin3 (NEUROG3) is a basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor required for development of the endocrine pancreas in mice. In contrast, humans with NEUROG3 mutations are born with endocrine pancreas function, calling into question whether NEUROG3 is required for human endocrine pancreas development. To test this directly, we generated human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines where both alleles of NEUROG3 were disrupted using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene targeting. NEUROG3−/− hESC lines efficiently formed pancreatic progenitors but lacked detectible NEUROG3 protein and did not form endocrine cells in vitro. Moreover, NEUROG3−/− hESC lines were unable to form mature pancreatic endocrine cells after engraftment of PDX1+/NKX6.1+ pancreatic progenitors into mice. In contrast, a 75–90% knockdown of NEUROG3 caused a reduction, but not a loss, of pancreatic endocrine cell development. We conclude that NEUROG3 is essential for endocrine pancreas development in humans and that as little as 10% NEUROG3 is sufficient for formation of pancreatic endocrine cells.
Glutamate Transporter Coupling to Na,K-ATPase

Deactivation of glutamatergic signaling in the brain is mediated by glutamate uptake into glia and neurons by glutamate transporters. Glutamate transporters are sodium-dependent proteins that putatively rely indirectly on Na,K-ATPases to generate ion gradients that drive transmitter uptake. Based on anatomical colocalization, mutual sodium dependency, and the inhibitory effects of the Na,K-ATPase inhibitor ouabain on glutamate transporter activity, we postulated that glutamate transporters are directly coupled to Na,K-ATPase and that Na,K-ATPase is an essential modulator of glutamate uptake. Na,K-ATPase was purified from rat cerebellum by tandem anion exchange and ouabain affinity chromatography, and the cohort of associated proteins was characterized by mass spectrometry. The α1–α3 subunits of Na,K-ATPase were detected, as were the glutamate transporters GLAST and GLT-1, demonstrating that glutamate transporters copurify with Na,K-ATPases. The link between glutamate transporters and Na,K-ATPase was further established by coimmunoprecipitation and colocalization. Analysis of the regulation of glutamate transporter and Na,K-ATPase activities was assessed using [3H]d-aspartate, [3H]l-glutamate, and rubidium-86 uptake into synaptosomes and cultured astrocytes. In synaptosomes, ouabain produced a dose-dependent inhibition of glutamate transporter and Na,K-ATPase activities, whereas in astrocytes, ouabain showed a bimodal effect whereby glutamate transporter activity was stimulated at 1 μm ouabain and inhibited at higher concentrations. The effects of protein kinase inhibitors on [3H]d-aspartate uptake indicated the selective involvement of Src kinases, which are probably a component of the Na,K-ATPase/glutamate transporter complex. These findings demonstrate that glutamate transporters and Na,K-ATPases are part of the same macromolecular complexes and operate as a functional unit to regulate glutamatergic neurotransmission.
Traumatic Testicular Dislocation Associated with Lateral Compression Pelvic Ring Injury and T-Shaped Acetabulum Fracture

We report a case of a unilateral testicular dislocation to the superficial inguinal region associated with a lateral compression type pelvic ring injury (OTA classification 61-C3.3a2, b2, c3) and left T-shaped acetabulum fracture (OTA classification 62-B2) in a 44-year-old male who was in a motorcycle accident. The testicular dislocation was noted during the emergency department primary survey, and its location and viability were verified with ultrasound. The testicle was isolated during surgical stabilization of the left acetabulum through a Pfannenstiel incision and modified-Stoppa approach and returned through the inguinal canal to the scrotum. In follow-up, the patient did not suffer urologic or sexual dysfunction. All motorcycle collision patients presenting with pelvic ring injuries or acetabulum fractures should be worked up for possible testicular dislocation with a scrotal exam. Advanced imaging and a urologic consult may be necessary to detect and treat these injuries.
The spreading of misinformation online

Significance The wide availability of user-provided content in online social media facilitates the aggregation of people around common interests, worldviews, and narratives. However, the World Wide Web is a fruitful environment for the massive diffusion of unverified rumors. In this work, using a massive quantitative analysis of Facebook, we show that information related to distinct narratives––conspiracy theories and scientific news––generates homogeneous and polarized communities (i.e., echo chambers) having similar information consumption patterns. Then, we derive a data-driven percolation model of rumor spreading that demonstrates that homogeneity and polarization are the main determinants for predicting cascades’ size. The wide availability of user-provided content in online social media facilitates the aggregation of people around common interests, worldviews, and narratives. However, the World Wide Web (WWW) also allows for the rapid dissemination of unsubstantiated rumors and conspiracy theories that often elicit rapid, large, but naive social responses such as the recent case of Jade Helm 15––where a simple military exercise turned out to be perceived as the beginning of a new civil war in the United States. In this work, we address the determinants governing misinformation spreading through a thorough quantitative analysis. In particular, we focus on how Facebook users consume information related to two distinct narratives: scientific and conspiracy news. We find that, although consumers of scientific and conspiracy stories present similar consumption patterns with respect to content, cascade dynamics differ. Selective exposure to content is the primary driver of content diffusion and generates the formation of homogeneous clusters, i.e., “echo chambers. ” Indeed, homogeneity appears to be the primary driver for the diffusion of contents and each echo chamber has its own cascade dynamics. Finally, we introduce a data-driven percolation model mimicking rumor spreading and we show that homogeneity and polarization are the main determinants for predicting cascades’ size.
Disturbed Ca2+ Homeostasis Increases Glutaminyl Cyclase Expression; Connecting Two Early Pathogenic Events in Alzheimer’s Disease In Vitro

A major neuropathological hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the deposition of aggregated β amyloid (Aβ) peptide in the senile plaques. Aβ is a peptide of 38–43 amino acids and its accumulation and aggregation plays a key role early in the disease. A large fraction of β amyloid is N-terminally truncated rendering a glutamine that can subsequently be cyclized into pyroglutamate (pE). This makes the peptide more resistant to proteases, more prone to aggregation and increases its neurotoxicity. The enzyme glutaminyl cyclase (QC) catalyzes this conversion of glutamine to pE. In brains of AD patients, the expression of QC is increased in the earliest stages of pathology, which may be an important event in the pathogenesis. In this study we aimed to investigate the regulatory mechanism underlying the upregulation of QC expression in AD. Using differentiated SK-N-SH as a neuronal cell model, we found that neither the presence of Aβ peptides nor the unfolded protein response, two early events in AD, leads to increased QC levels. In contrast, we demonstrated increased QC mRNA levels and enzyme activity in response to another pathogenic factor in AD, perturbed intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis. The QC promoter contains a putative binding site for the Ca2+ dependent transcription factors c-fos and c-jun. C-fos and c-jun are induced by the same Ca2+-related stimuli as QC and their upregulation precedes QC expression. We show that in the human brain QC is predominantly expressed by neurons. Interestingly, the Ca2+- dependent regulation of both c-fos and QC is not observed in non-neuronal cells. Our results indicate that perturbed Ca2+ homeostasis results in upregulation of QC selectively in neuronal cells via Ca2+- dependent transcription factors. This suggests that disruption of Ca2+ homeostasis may contribute to the formation of the neurotoxic pE Aβ peptides in Alzheimer’s disease.
BAZ1B is dispensable for H2AX phosphorylation on Tyrosine 142 during spermatogenesis

ABSTRACT Meiosis is precisely regulated by the factors involved in DNA damage response in somatic cells. Among them, phosphorylation of H2AX on Serine 139 (γH2AX) is an essential signal for the silencing of unsynapsed sex chromosomes during male meiosis. However, it remains unknown how adjacent H2AX phosphorylation on Tyrosine 142 (pTyr142) is regulated in meiosis. Here we investigate the meiotic functions of BAZ1B (WSTF), the only known Tyr142 kinase in somatic cells, using mice possessing a conditional deletion of BAZ1B. Although BAZ1B deletion causes ectopic γH2AX signals on synapsed autosomes during the early pachytene stage, BAZ1B is dispensable for fertility and critical events during spermatogenesis. BAZ1B deletion does not alter events on unsynapsed axes and pericentric heterochromatin formation. Furthermore, BAZ1B is dispensable for localization of the ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling protein SMARCA5 (SNF2h) during spermatogenesis despite the complex formation between BAZ1B and SMARCA5, known as the WICH complex, in somatic cells. Notably, pTyr142 is regulated independently of BAZ1B and is dephosphorylated on the sex chromosomes during meiosis in contrast with the presence of adjacent γH2AX. Dephosphorylation of pTyr142 is regulated by MDC1, a binding partner of γH2AX. These results reveal the distinct regulation of two adjacent phosphorylation sites of H2AX during meiosis, and suggest that another kinase mediates Tyr142 phosphorylation.
Image Fusion Technology Based on Bio-inspired Features

Infrared and visible image fusion, as a powerful tool for the object detection and recognition, has developed with the advent of various imaging modalities. However, resulting images of traditional methods are always difficult to compromise between multimodalities. This paper has solved this problem by a variable-weight fusion rule based on the non-sub sampled contourlet transform (NSCT). The original images are combined in the multiscaled space and the fused image is obtained in the bio-inspired feature frame. Validation experiments on infrared and visible images are for two purposes: the comparison among different fusion rules and the impact of the multiscaled analysis in infrared and visible image fusion. In order to evaluate the proposed method, information entropy (IE), standard deviation (STD), spatial frequency (SF) and mutual information (MI) are adopted to compare with Laplace, wavelet, and NSCT et al. Results are shown that all evaluation value of the proposed method is higher than that of other methods, and it is a better image fusion method.
Navigating the city: dialectics of everyday urbanism

How might we conceptualise and research everyday urbanism? By examining the making of everyday life in a low-income neighbourhood in Uganda, we argue that a dialectics of everyday urbanism is a useful approach for understanding urban poverty. This dialectical approach examines how marginalised urban dwellers navigate the city in the relative absence of formal infrastructure systems, service provision and state welfare, and in turn exceed those limitations through forging connections, capacities and opportunities. We reveal the ‘social infrastructures’ that people put together to sustain life, as well as the limits of and placed on these infrastructures, from the legacies of structural adjustment to ongoing forms of demolition and disinvestment. We identify a set of practices that operate alongside social infrastructure – ‘coordination’, ‘consolidation’ and ‘speculation’ – important in the composition of everyday urban life. In doing so, we reflect on how we might research the dialectics of everyday urbanism, and here a ‘follow-along participant observation’ (FAPO) methodology has significant potential. Our arguments emerge from research with residents in Kampala, but open out questions for how we conceive and research everyday life and urban infrastructure more generally.
Interactions between parental alcohol-specific rules and risk personalities in the prediction of adolescent alcohol use.

AIMS To examine the impact of an important context variable (alcohol-specific parental rules) and an important person variable (risky personality traits) and their interaction on prospective adolescent drinking. METHODS Participants were 252 adolescents, 67.9% female, between 13 and 16 years old. Data were collected via online assessments during 2 years with four time points of assessments. We examined membership of alcohol use trajectories as a function of parental alcohol-specific rules, moderated by risk-associated personality traits. RESULTS Permissive parental rules predicted early onset and trajectories of heavy drinking. High scores on Sensation Seeking and Hopelessness also predicted early onset and heavy drinking, but there was no evidence for moderation. CONCLUSION The influence of parental rule setting and risk personality was confirmed, but no evidence was found that the impact of risk personality on adolescent drinking is moderated by parental rules. Implications of these findings, and limitations of the study, are discussed.
How Much Is Too Much: Educational Loans and College Graduation

This study examines the association between educational loans and college graduation rates, with a focus on differences by race and ethnicity. Data come from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Results from the event history analyses indicate that educational loans are positively related to college graduation rates, but only up to a point (about US$19,753). Although this nonlinear relationship holds true among White, Black, and Hispanic students, there are differences in the level of loans where its effect turns negative on graduate rates. There is little evidence overall that educational loans reduce racial and ethnic disparities in college graduation.
Imitation of atypical biological motion in autism spectrum disorders

The aim of the present thesis was to examine imitation of biological motion in adults with autism spectrum disorders. Using a novel behavioural protocol, adults with autism and matched neurotypical control adults imitated models that displayed distinctly different, but biological believable kinematics. In Chapter Two it was observed that adults with autism exhibited low-fidelity imitation of atypical biological motion. In Chapter Three it was observed that when selective-attention instructions were provided, although eye movements recorded during action- observation was similar to controls, imitation of atypical biological motion was still impaired. In Chapter Four across three experiments it was shown that adults with autism exhibit reasonably high-fidelity imitation of atypical biological motion. This was achieved by presenting the to-be-imitated biological models in a fixed presentation structure which is known to facilitate greater integration and consolidation of sensorimotor information. This suggestion was supported by a further study where firstly participants were required to complete a secondary motor task during the inter-trial delay, and when the presentation structure was randomised (similar to Chapters Two and Three) resulting in low-fidelity imitation of atypical biological motion. These findings across the present thesis will be discussed in light of a critical evaluation with respect to current literature on imitation in autism, as well as implications for theoretical accounts of impaired imitation in autism and related sensorimotor control processes. Future considerations and translational research will be discussed, with the intention of offering prospective social rehabilitation protocols in autism.
Einstein type metrics and stability on vector bundles

In this paper we show that stability for holomorphic vector bundles are equivalent to the existence of solutions to certain system of Monge Amp ere equations parametrized by a parameter k. We solve this fully nonlinear elliptic system by singular perturbation technique and show that the vanishing of obstructions for the perturbation is given precisely by the stability condition. This can be interpreted as an in nite dimensional analog of the equivalency between Geometric InvariantTheory and SymplecticReduction for moduli space of vector bundles.
Can Touch Screen Tablets be Used to Assess Cognitive and Motor Skills in Early Years Primary School Children? A Cross-Cultural Study

Assessment of cognitive and motor functions is fundamental for developmental and neuropsychological profiling. Assessments are usually conducted on an individual basis, with a trained examiner, using standardized paper and pencil tests, and can take up to an hour or more to complete, depending on the nature of the test. This makes traditional standardized assessments of child development largely unsuitable for use in low-income countries. Touch screen tablets afford the opportunity to assess cognitive functions in groups of participants, with untrained administrators, with precision recording of responses, thus automating the assessment process. In turn, this enables cognitive profiling to be conducted in contexts where access to qualified examiners and standardized assessments are rarely available. As such, touch screen assessments could provide a means of assessing child development in both low- and high-income countries, which would afford cross-cultural comparisons to be made with the same assessment tool. However, before touch screen tablet assessments can be used for cognitive profiling in low-to-high-income countries they need to be shown to provide reliable and valid measures of performance. We report the development of a new touch screen tablet assessment of basic cognitive and motor functions for use with early years primary school children in low- and high-income countries. Measures of spatial intelligence, visual attention, short-term memory, working memory, manual processing speed, and manual coordination are included as well as mathematical knowledge. To investigate if this new touch screen assessment tool can be used for cross-cultural comparisons we administered it to a sample of children (N = 283) spanning standards 1–3 in a low-income country, Malawi, and a smaller sample of children (N = 70) from first year of formal schooling from a high-income country, the UK. Split-half reliability, test-retest reliability, face validity, convergent construct validity, predictive criterion validity, and concurrent criterion validity were investigated. Results demonstrate “proof of concept” that touch screen tablet technology can provide reliable and valid psychometric measures of performance in the early years, highlighting its potential to be used in cross-cultural comparisons and research.
Questioning the president: Examining gender in the White House press corps

In 2014, President Barack Obama made history by only calling upon women journalists during a domestic news conference with the White House press corps. To capitalize on and examine this critical first in journalism, this study analyzed the potential influence of a journalist’s gender in White House press corps news conferences with President Obama a year before and a year after the all-female conference. The content analysis examined what political issues journalists emphasized in presidential news conferences and whether these issue emphases varied (a) by journalists’ gender and (b) before and after the all-female conference. Results revealed that, to some extent, men and women emphasized different issues. Furthermore, there were marked shifts after the all-female conference. First, women were called upon more often. Second, women emphasized several issues more than men. In particular, women became predominant on questions dealing with so-called ‘masculine’ or ‘hard news’ issues, for example, macroeconomics and foreign trade. This work suggests that gender, in all of its permutations – be it the journalist’s gender, the gendering of issues, or the gendering of occupational spaces – matters and may affect journalists’ lines of questioning.
Incidence and Time to Return to Training for Stress Fractures during Military Basic Training

Currently, little is known about the length of time required to rehabilitate patients from stress fractures and their return to preinjury level of physical activity. Previous studies have looked at the return to sport in athletes, in a general population, where rehabilitation is not as controlled as within a captive military population. In this study, a longitudinal prospective epidemiological database was assessed to determine the incidence of stress fractures and the time taken to rehabilitate recruits to preinjury stage of training. Findings demonstrated a background prevalence of 5% stress fractures in Royal Marine training; femoral and tibial stress fractures take 21.1 weeks to return to training with metatarsal stress fractures being the most common injury taking 12.2 weeks. Rehabilitation from stress fractures accounts for 814 weeks of recruit rehabilitation time per annum. Stress fracture incidence is still common in military training; despite this stress fracture recovery times remain constant and represent a significant interruption in training. It takes on average 5 weeks after exercise specific training has restarted to reenter training at a preinjury level, regardless of which bone has a stress fracture. Further research into their prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation is required to help reduce these burdens.