Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Processing of Communication Calls in Guinea Pig Auditory Cortex

Vocal communication is an important aspect of guinea pig behaviour and a large contributor to their acoustic environment. We postulated that some cortical areas have distinctive roles in processing conspecific calls. In order to test this hypothesis we presented exemplars from all ten of their main adult vocalizations to urethane anesthetised animals while recording from each of the eight areas of the auditory cortex. We demonstrate that the primary area (AI) and three adjacent auditory belt areas contain many units that give isomorphic responses to vocalizations. These are the ventrorostral belt (VRB), the transitional belt area (T) that is ventral to AI and the small area (area S) that is rostral to AI. Area VRB has a denser representation of cells that are better at discriminating among calls by using either a rate code or a temporal code than any other area. Furthermore, 10% of VRB cells responded to communication calls but did not respond to stimuli such as clicks, broadband noise or pure tones. Area S has a sparse distribution of call responsive cells that showed excellent temporal locking, 31% of which selectively responded to a single call. AI responded well to all vocalizations and was much more responsive to vocalizations than the adjacent dorsocaudal core area. Areas VRB, AI and S contained units with the highest levels of mutual information about call stimuli. Area T also responded well to some calls but seems to be specialized for low sound levels. The two dorsal belt areas are comparatively unresponsive to vocalizations and contain little information about the calls. AI projects to areas S, VRB and T, so there may be both rostral and ventral pathways for processing vocalizations in the guinea pig.
A Photometric Study of the Newly Discovered Eclipsing Cataclysmic Variable SDSS J040714.78–064425.1

Abstract We present the results obtained from unfiltered photometric CCD observations of the newly discovered cataclysmic variable SDSS J040714.78–064425.1 made during seven nights in 2003 November. We establish the dwarf nova nature of the object as it was in outburst during our observations. We also confirm the presence of deep eclipses with a period of 0.17017 ± 0.00003 d in the optical light curve of the star. In addition, we found periods of 0.166 ± 0.001 d and possibly also 5.3 ± 0.7 d in the data. The 0.17017 d periodicity is consistent within the errors with the proposed orbital period of 0.165 and 0.1700 d. Using the known relation between the orbital and superhump periods, we interpret the 0.166 and 5.3 d periods as the negative superhump and the nodal precession period respectively. SDSS J040714.78–064425.1 is then classified as a negative superhump system with one of the largest orbital periods.
Hostile Intent Attributions and Aggression 1 Hostile Intent Attributions and Aggression : The Moderating Roles of Emotional Sensitivity , Gender , and Victimization

The current study adopts a relational vulnerability model to examine the association between hostile attribution bias and relational aggression. Specifically, the relational vulnerability model implicates the interactive effects of a number of relational risk factors in the development of relational aggression. A sample of 635 3 rd , 4 th , and 5 th grade students (50.2% females) completed a self-report measure assessing hostile attribution bias and emotional distress for relational provocations. Peer nominations and teacher reports of relational aggression and relational victimization were also collected. Results supported the relational vulnerability model for girls only. Specifically, hostile attribution bias was associated with relational aggression only when relational victimization and emotional distress were also high. Implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed.
CROSS-CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF INTERPERSONAL METADISCOURSE MARKERS IN PERSUASIVE LOCAL NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

This paper aims to explore the role interpersonal metadiscourse markers play in the construction and achievement of persuasion in local British and Iranian newspapers. To this end, a corpus of 120 persuasive opinion articles published in two local Iranian newspapers, namely Isfahan Ziba and Isfahan (Emrooz) Today, and two local British newspapers, namely Liverpool Echo and Chronicle Live, from July 2015 to June 2016, were randomly selected and analyzed based on Dafouz-Milne’s (2008) taxonomy of interpersonal metadiscourse markers. The overal findings disclose that interpersonal metadiscourse is present in the two corpora; however, there are variations in the distribution and frequency of interpersonal markers.
The Effect of Platelet-rich Plasma on Wounds of OLETF Rats Using Expression of Matrix Metalloproteinase-2 and -9 mRNA

Background Complicated diabetic patients show impaired, delayed wound healing caused by multiple factors. A study on wound healing showed that platelet-rich plasma (PRP) was effective in normal tissue regeneration. Nonetheless, there is no evidence that when plateletrich plasma is applied to diabetic wounds, it normalizes the diabetic wound healing process. In this study, we have analyzed matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, MMP-9 expression to investigate the effect of PRP on diabetic wounds. Methods Twenty-four-week-old male Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty rats were provided by the Tokushima Research Institute. At 50 weeks, wounds were arranged in two sites on the lateral paraspinal areas. Each wound was treated with PRP gel and physiologic saline gauze. To determine the expression of MMP-2, MMP-9, which was chosen as a marker of wound healing, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed and local distribution and expression of MMP-2, MMP-9 was also observed throughout the immunohistochemical staining. Results RT-PCR and the immunohistochemical study showed that the levels of MMP-2, MMP-9 mRNA expression in PRP applied tissues were higher than MMP-2, MMP-9 mRNA expression in saline-applied tissues. MMP-9 mRNA expression in wounds of diabetic rats decreased after healing began to occur. But no statistical differences were detected on the basis of body weight or fasting blood glucose levels. Conclusions This study could indicate the extracellular matrix-regulating effect observed with PRP. Our results of the acceleration of wound healing events by PRP under hyperglycemic conditions might be a useful clue for future clinical treatment for diabetic wounds.
Awards at Work

Social incentives like employee awards are widespread in the corporate sector and may be important instruments for solving agency problems. To date, we have little understanding of their effect on behavior. Unique panel data from the call center of a Fortune 500 financial services provider allow us to estimate the impact of awards on performance. Winning an award for voluntary work behaviors significantly increases subsequent core call center performance. The effect is short-lived, mainly driven by underperforming agents, and is reflected mostly in dimensions of the job that are hard to observe. We discuss various theories that could explain the effect.
A Method for the Assessment of Social 8 Support Networks in Community Survey Research

s : "Coping, Support, and High-Risk Populations : A Social Network Approach . " Barton Hirsch (Stanford Medical School) . Focusing on the role of the social network in the coping process, this paper presents the development of an ecological model of social adaptation in high-risk populations, There are several factors that make a network approach to coping and adaptation especially attractive : 1) the network is a crucial mediator between personal values and social competencies on the one hand, and environmental variables (eg, aggregate neighborhood composition) on the other ; 2) network density, which measures the proportion of actual to potential ties among network members, provides a means of assessing systemic properties of support systems ; and 3) the focus on relationships with identified individuals has concrete benefits for designing preventive and therapeutic interventions . Three studies are presented . Findings from a first, exploratory study of 32 college students during final exams suggested that low density networks can provide more effective support . 5
Unrealistic responses to realistic problems with missing information: what are important barriers?

Abstract It is a well-documented finding that students tend to neglect their real-world knowledge when solving word problems, even when realistic assumptions are needed. Although studies have successfully shown the extent to which students tend to provide unrealistic responses, the question of where this tendency comes from has yet to be answered. We focused on two major steps needed to solve realistic word problems: noticing missing information and making realistic assumptions. We conducted two studies with fifth graders (Study 1, N = 108; Study 2, N = 60) in which we compared students’ (un-)realistic responses to problems that differed in how obvious the missing information was. Study 1 fostered only students’ ability to make assumptions. Study 2 fostered this ability plus the ability to notice missing information. The results indicate that, if the missing information is not obvious, students’ failure to notice it seems to be what prevents them from arriving at a realistic solution.
‘Se llevaron el padre de mis hijos’: Latina mothers coping with the deportation of their partner

In recent years, Latinos in the US have been significantly impacted by increasing deportation rates. This study aimed to explore the experiences of Latina women whose partners were deported and how women managed these events guided by the double ABCX model of family stress. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were administered to a community sample of eight Latina women from the greater D.C. metropolitan area whose partners had been deported between one and ten years ago. All women had at least one child under the age of 18 years living in the home at the time of the deportation. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings suggest that despite facing numerous stressors, women rely on various resources to overcome consequences resulting from their partner’s deportation, including religious resources, family and friends, and social service agencies. Implications for clinical practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.
The Cost of Bad Parents: Evidence from the Eﬀects of Parental Incarceration on Children’s Education

This paper provides evidence that parental incarceration increases children’s educational attainment. I collect criminal records for 90,000 low-income parents who have been convicted of a crime in Colombia, and combine it with administrative data on the educational attainment of their children. I exploit exogenous variation in parental incarceration resulting from the random assignment of defendants to judges with diﬀerent propensities to convict and incarcerate. My identiﬁcation strategy diﬀers from the usual judge IV application because I model incarceration as a two-stage decision problem: First conviction, and then incarceration. I exploit judge leniency along these two diﬀerent margins. Intuitively, I take advantage of the fact that I can compare children of parents who faced similar judge conviction leniency, but had different incarceration leniency. I derive a new expression that extends the Local Average Treatment Eﬀect concept, to a setting with two sources of unobserved treatment heterogeneity. I ﬁnd that conditional on conviction, parental incarceration increases education by 0.8 years for children whose parents are on the margin of incarceration. This positive eﬀect is larger for boys, violent crimes, and cases in which the incarcerated parent is the mother.
Priming and accelerated ageing affect L-isoaspartyl methyltransferase activity in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) seed

Damage and degradation of cellular proteins is observed during age-induced seed deterioration, LIsoaspartyl protein methyltransferase (EC 2.1.1.77) is an enzyme hypothesized to play a role in limiting and repairing age-induced damage to proteins. Tomato {Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. 'New Yorker') seeds were assayed for changes in L-isoaspartyl methyltransferase activity during accelerated ageing and after osmotic priming. Accelerated ageing of seeds for 1-4 d at 45 C and 100% relative humidity reduced germination from 94% to 71%, increased the mean time of germination (MTC) from 2.4 to 5.8 d, and was accompanied by a correlative decrease in L-isoaspartyl methyltransferase activity (^ = 0.90). Aged and untreated seeds were primed for 7 d at 20 °C in darkness using aerated solutions of 3% KNO3 or polyethylene glycol 8000 (PEG) with equivalent osmotic potential ( —1.25 MPa). Priming with KNO3 decreased the MTG, but did not improve germination percentage for untreated seeds. Priming did not affect L-isoaspartyl methyltransferase activity in untreated seeds, but restored activity in aged seeds primed in KNO 3 to levels near that of untreated seeds. Priming with PEG did not effectively improve the MTG or increase L-isoaspartyl methyltransferase activity. During germination, L-isoaspartyl methyltransferase activity remained constant for 48 h post-imbibition and then declined, suggesting that the enzyme was developmentally regulated and inactivated or degraded as radicle emergence occurred.
Drug Overdoses in Pennsylvania: Measuring, Tracking, and Forecasting the Epidemic

Among the many challenges for public officials in controlling the opioid epidemic, one major problem is how to accurately measure, track, and forecast the epidemic’s course, and how to reliably assess the effectiveness—and cost-­effectiveness—of epidemic control measures. In this review we summarize available epidemiological data on substance use disorders and their complications that can be useful to measure and track the epidemic in Pennsylvania. We examine the data through the lens of a systems approach, with the goal of using epidemiological data to create and parameterize dynamic models of the epidemic. We suggest that by integrating a variety of datasets into systems models, it should be possible to forecast and predict the future trajectory of the epidemic and make appropriate decisions on how to mitigate the epidemic. In addition, we identify several potentially valuable data sources that are currently underused for public health decision making.
Optimum Tilt Angles for PV Modules in a Semi-Arid Region of the Southern Hemisphere

It is essential to repeat a test of a given construct in research in order to underpin knowledge, support validity and enable its application in other contexts. The purpose of this article is to present repetitive test results validating the optimum tilt angle of a stationary PV module that was installed in a semi-arid region of South Africa. An experimental design incorporating a two-year longitudinal study is used. The results for 2016 and 2017 reveal that a PV module with a tilt angle of Latitude plus 10° yielded the highest output power for winter months, while a PV module with a tilt angle of Latitude minus 10° yielded the highest output power for summer months. However, for both years, a tilt angle set to the Latitude angle of the installation site yielded the highest overall average output power (60.02 Wh per day). It is therefore recommended to install stationary PV modules at a tilt angle equal to the Latitude of the installation site for a semiarid region in the southern hemisphere.
The influence of selected factors on burnout among faculty in higher education

The purpose of this study was to explore demographic variables and job satisfaction and the relationship with burnout among higher education faculty. The sample included 248 tenured professors selected through simple random sampling techniques. A three-part instrument was used: the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-ES), which measured levels of burnout based on subscales of Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Personal Accomplishment; the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) and Job in General (JIG) scales, which indicated job satisfaction in areas of: Work on Present Job, Present Pay, Opportunities for Promotion, Supervision on Present Job, People in Present Job, and Job in General; and, a Demographic Data Questionnaire. Findings included: the population studied were relatively satisfied with all aspects of their work except Opportunities for Promotion and Present Pay. They were evenly dispersed on the MBI. A significant portion of the variance (47%) of Emotional Exhaustion burnout (F = 35.751, df = 234, p < .001) was explained by: satisfaction with Job in General, satisfaction with Work on Present Job, reported health condition, and current age. A significant portion of the variance (31.6%) of Depersonalization burnout (F = 17.559, df = 234, p < .001) was explained by: Satisfaction with Work on Present Job, having other financial responsibility, and years since granted tenure. A significant portion of the variance (17.4%) of Personal Accomplishment burnout (F = 12.153, df = 234, p <.001) was explained by: satisfaction with Work on Present Job, having a Ph.D, Job in General, and reported health condition.
A More Timely and Useful Index of Leading Indicators

Effectively predicting cyclical movements in the economy is a major challenge. The U.S. leading index (LI) has long been used to analyze and predict economic fluctuations. We describe and test a new procedure for making the LI more timely. The new LI significantly outperforms its older counterpart. It offers substantial gains in real-time, out-of-sample forecasts of changes in aggregate economic activity (real GDP, the index of coincident indicators, and industrial production) and provides timely and accurate ex ante information for predicting not only business cycle turning points, but also monthly changes in the economy.
Unusually large gaps between consecutive primes

Let G(x) denote the largest gap between consecutive primes below x. In a series of papers from 1935 to 1963, Erdos, Rankin, and Schonhage showed that G(x) > (c + o(1)) logx loglogx loglogloglogx(logloglogx)-2 where c = ey and y is Euler's constant. Here, this result is shown with c = c ey where c0 = 1.31256 . is the solution of the equation 4/co e 4/Co = 3 The principal new tool used is a result of independent interest, namely, a mean value theorem for generalized twin primes lying in a residue class with a large modulus.
Hemochromatosis gene polymorphisms, mitochondrial haplogroups, and peripheral lipoatrophy during antiretroviral therapy.

BACKGROUND Antiretroviral therapy (ART)-associated lipoatrophy involves mitochondrial dysfunction. Iron metabolism impacts mitochondrial function and oxidative stress. Mitochondrial haplogroups and hemochromatosis gene (HFE) polymorphisms have been associated with ART-induced neuropathy. We assessed relationships between these variants and lipoatrophy. METHODS The AIDS Clinical Trials Group 384 study randomized ART-naive individuals to receive didanosine-stavudine or zidovudine-lamivudine, combined with efavirenz and/or nelfinavir. Substudy A5005s evaluated fat distribution by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). We characterized HFE polymorphisms 845G>A and 187C>G and European mitochondrial haplogroups in A5005s participants who consented to genetic analyses. RESULTS Among 96 participants (58% were white, and 10% were female) with baseline and 48 or 64 week DEXA data, the median limb fat change was -8.8% (interquartile range, -28.7% to +15.6%). HFE 187C/G heterozygotes (n = 23) had less limb fat loss than 187C/C homozygotes (n = 71) (+6.1% vs. -12.5%; P = .02) and were less likely to develop lipoatrophy after adjustment for age, sex, race, and ART randomization (odds ratio, 0.31; 95% confidence interval, 0.10-0.95; P = .04). Among non-Hispanic white participants, median limb fat change was +26.1% among 5 participants with mitochondrial haplogroup J, compared with -9.7% among 49 participants with other mitochondrial haplogroups (P = .07). CONCLUSIONS HFE 187C>G and, possibly, mitochondrial haplogroup J gave relative protection against lipoatrophy during ART in A5005s. These associations should be replicated in other studies.
The Effect of Spanish and English Narrative Intervention on the Language Skills of Young Dual Language Learners

Standards of academic performance place a high demand on students’ English language. To help Spanish-speaking preschoolers who are developing English as a second language meet these demands, researchers recommend strengthening their first language to facilitate development of their second language. Head Start teachers and research assistants delivered 12 Spanish and 12 English language lessons to eight preschoolers in small groups. Lessons targeted storytelling and vocabulary and occurred 4 days a week for 20 min. A multiple-baseline experimental design across groups was used to examine the effect of the Spanish–English narrative intervention on children’s retelling skills and a pretest posttest design without a control group documented children’s acquisition of the target words. Results indicated that children made gains in English retelling while maintaining their already high Spanish retelling skills. Improvements in vocabulary were observed in English but not in Spanish.
VLTI near-IR interferometric observations of Vega-like stars: Radius and age of a PsA, b Leo, b Pic, e Eri and t Cet

We report in this paper the direct interferometric measurement of the angular diameter of five nearby Vega-like stars: α PsA, β Leo, β Pic, � Eri and τ Cet. The near-infrared (K and H bands) observations were conducted at the VLTI during the commissioning period with the VINCI instrument and three different baselines ranging from 66 m to 140 m. The five stellar photospheres are resolved and we derive their angular diameters with a 1 to 2% accuracy, except for β Pic (14%). We discuss the detectability and the influence of a possible small amount of warm circumstellar dust on our measurements. In addition, we have used the stellar evolution code CESAM (Morel 1997) to compare the computed fundamental parameters to the observed values (linear diameter, luminosity, temperature and chemical abundance). As a result of the simulation, the age of the stars is inferred and found to be in good agreement with previous estimates from various other methods.
Gender Differences in Response to Prolonged Every-Other-Day Feeding on the Proliferation and Apoptosis of Hepatocytes in Mice

Intermittent fasting decreases glucose and insulin levels and increases insulin sensitivity and lifespan. Decreased food intake influences the liver. Previous studies have shown gender differences in response to various types of caloric restriction, including every-other-day (EOD) feeding, in humans and rodents. Our goal was to show the influence of prolonged EOD feeding on the morphology, proliferation and apoptosis of livers from male and female mice. After nine months of an EOD diet, the livers from male and female mice were collected. We examined their morphology on histological slides using the Hematoxilin and Eosine (H_E) method and Hoechst staining of cell nuclei to evaluate the nuclear area of hepatocytes. We also evaluated the expression of mRNA for proto-oncogens, pro-survival proteins and apoptotic markers using Real Time Polimerase Chain Reaction (PCR). We noted increased lipid content in the livers of EOD fed female mice. EOD feeding lead to a decrease of proliferation and apoptosis in the livers of female and male mice, which suggest that tissue maintenance occurred during EOD feeding. Our experiment revealed sex-specific expression of mRNA for proto-oncogenes and pro-survival and pro-apoptotic genes in mice as well as sex-specific responses to the EOD treatment.