Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Food Consumption, Feed Efficiency, Metabolic Rate and Utilization of Glucose in Lines of TRIBOLIUM CASTANEUM Selected for 21-Day Pupa Weight.

Food consumption, feed efficiency, metabolic rate and glucose utilization were studied throughout development in one control (1C) and three selected lines (3, 9, 10) of Tribolium castaneum that had been subjected to long term selection for 21-day pupae weight. Growth rate, body composition, cellular growth and the activity of four dehydrogenase enzymes in the same lines have been reported (Medrano and Gall 1976). -Larva of selected lines consumed 1.2 times as much food as the control and gained an average of 2.9 times as much weight. The rapid growth of the selected lines was associated with a gross feed efficiency 20 to 30% above that for the control line. There was also a small but consistent improvement in the conversion of digested food. Average digestibility was higher for selected lines. -There was little apparent differentiation between the control and selected lines in metabolic rate/individual, but the rate measured on a per-unit weight basis was two- to three-fold greater for the control during the active growth stages. Respiratory quotients (R.Q.) of 1.0, indicative of carbohydrate oxidation, were observed through larval growth in all lines. Pupae at 21 days showed R.Q. values greater than 1.0, which were interpreted as resulting from a phenomenon in insects in which CO(2) is released by pupae, in large bursts at irregular intervals. The rate constant of glucose oxidation, measured as the rate of C(14) labelled CO(2) respired during 2- to 6-hour incubation periods, was two- to three-fold higher in the control. In addition, the control line larvae expired 5% to 17% more of the ingested C(14) as CO(2). It was apparent that control line individuals maintained a much more active turnover of metabolites but without an effective retention of carbon as body substances. The results are discussed in support of the hypothesis that selection for large body size resulted in improved control mechanisms that influence the biological efficiency of growth in Tribolium.
Looking at Unbalanced Specialized Comparable Corpora for Bilingual Lexicon Extraction

The main work in bilingual lexicon extraction from comparable corpora is based on the implicit hypothesis that corpora are balanced. However, the historical contextbased projection method dedicated to this task is relatively insensitive to the sizes of each part of the comparable corpus. Within this context, we have carried out a study on the influence of unbalanced specialized comparable corpora on the quality of bilingual terminology extraction through different experiments. Moreover, we have introduced a regression model that boosts the observations of word cooccurrences used in the context-based projection method. Our results show that the use of unbalanced specialized comparable corpora induces a significant gain in the quality of extracted lexicons.
Increased Antigen Presentation but Impaired T Cells Priming after Upregulation of Interferon-Beta Induced by Lipopolysaccharides Is Mediated by Upregulation of B7H1 and GITRL

Dendritic cells are able to present Ag-derived peptides on MHC class I and II molecules and induce T cells priming. Lipopolysaccharides (LPS), an activator of Toll-like 4 receptor (TLR4) signaling, has been demonstrated to facilitate Ag-presentation, up-regulate surface molecules expression but impair T cells priming. In this study, we investigated the effect of LPS on nicotine-enhanced DCs-dependent T cells priming and the mechanisms of LPS orchestrating the immunosuppressive program. We could demonstrate that the treatment with LPS resulted in increased surface molecules expression, enhanced Ag-presentation, up-regulated release of TGF-beta, TNF-alpha, IL-6, and IFN-beta. Concomititantly, the upregulation of IFN-beta in DCs induces the up-regulation of coinhibitory molecules B7H1 and GITRL, which cause an impaired activation of naïve Ag-specific T cells and the induction of T cell tolerance by enhancing B7H1-PD-1 interactions and promoting GITRL-GITL facilitated Treg generation, respectively. These data provide a mechanistic basis for the immunomodulatory action of IFN-beta which might open new possibilities in the development of therapeutic approaches aimed at the control of excessive immune response and persistent infection.
Phylogenetics of Tribe Anthocercideae (Solanaceae) Based on ndhF and trnL/F Sequence Data

Abstract Tribe Anthocercideae (Solanaceae) is an Australian endemic group comprising 31 species in seven genera. Recent phylogenetic work has placed the Anthocercideae sister to Nicotiana. Two chloroplast DNA regions, ndhF and trnL/F, were analyzed and the phylogeny was used to test the tribe's monophyly, discover relationships within the tribe, and make inferences on character evolution and biogeography. The relationship between Nicotiana, Symonanthus, and the rest of tribe Anthocercideae is unresolved. Anthocercis, Anthotroche, Grammosolen, and Symonanthus are found to be monophyletic, while Cyphanthera and Duboisia are not (Crenidium is monotypic). Several characters were inferred to be derived within the Anthocercideae, including unilocular stamens with semicircular slits, ebracteolate flowers, and baccate fruits. Ancient colonization occurred in southwestern Australia followed by several radiation events eastward.
Cynicism ex machina: The emotionality of reporting the ‘refugee crisis’ and Paris terrorist attacks in Czech Television

The article seeks to explore crisis reporters’ emotional culture. Their emotional practices are believed to lie at the core of the paradox of the traditional commitment to objectivity/detachment and witnessing other people’s suffering, and thus to be vital for understanding crisis reporting. The article, focusing on reporting the so-called ‘refugee crisis’ and the 13 November Paris terrorist attacks by Czech Television, addresses the question on how crisis reporters’ emotions are articulated by the processes of crisis reporting. The findings, based on (non-)participant observation in newsrooms and semi-structured interviews with journalists, suggest that repetitive reporting of the emotionally disturbing events and witnessing close or distant suffering may result in declared cynicism. The cynicism is understood as a prerequisite for successful performance of the job; at the same time, it is perceived as an emotional posture that threatens professional ideology.
Exploring the Lived Experiences of Mothers of Children With Intellectual Disability in Ghana

This study explored the experiences of mothers of children with intellectual disability in Ghana. Specifically, the study sought to determine the challenges and coping strategies associated with raising a child with intellectual disability. Using the phenomenological approach, 11 mothers were purposively selected from mothers whose children attended a “special” school. Semistructured interviews were used to collect data on the experiences of mothers of children with intellectual disability. Data were analyzed and interpreted into six themes including emotional reactions, caregiving challenges, societal reactions, knowledge of the condition, perceived cause of the condition, and coping strategies. The findings of the study demonstrate that being a mother of a child with intellectual disability is beset with several negative experiences of stress; however, mothers recounted the valuable nature of their coping strategies including spiritual beliefs, support, and hope in raising their children with intellectual disability. This study highlighted the challenging nature of having a child with intellectual disability and the beneficial roles of coping strategies in helping mothers traverse the caregiving journey with their children. This study provides relevant information for mental health practice, policy, and research, and serves as a guide in developing intervention programs for parents of children with intellectual disability in Ghana.
Dynamic integration of information about salience and value for saccadic eye movements

Humans shift their gaze to a new location several times per second. It is still unclear what determines where they look next. Fixation behavior is influenced by the low-level salience of the visual stimulus, such as luminance, contrast, and color, but also by high-level task demands and prior knowledge. Under natural conditions, different sources of information might conflict with each other and have to be combined. In our paradigm, we trade off visual salience against expected value. We show that both salience and value information influence the saccadic end point within an object, but with different time courses. The relative weights of salience and value are not constant but vary from eye movement to eye movement, depending critically on the availability of the value information at the time when the saccade is programmed. Short-latency saccades are determined mainly by salience, but value information is taken into account for long-latency saccades. We present a model that describes these data by dynamically weighting and integrating detailed topographic maps of visual salience and value. These results support the notion of independent neural pathways for the processing of visual information and value.
Initial usability assessment of off-the-shelf video game consoles for clinical game-based motor rehabilitation

Abstract Aims/background: Off-the-shelf games for consoles such as the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo WiiFit and Sony PlayStation 2 EyeToy have been developed and tested for the purpose of entertainment. Many clinics are adopting the use of these off-the-shelf devices for exercise, social interaction and rehabilitation because they are affordable, accessible and can be used within the clinic and home. Our group carried out initial usability evaluations for these off-the-shelf games and a prototype game (using an off-the-shelf device) specifically developed for people with disabilities. Methods: A series of studies have been undertaken through formative and summative evaluation and focus group research with a sample of people recovering from spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury and stroke. Findings from two studies are presented. Following a demonstration and trial of the devices, observational and questionnaire data were collected to determine participants' perception of each system's usability, appeal and enjoyment. Results: The first study involved evaluation and focus group discussions of seven participants (two females, five males) with SCI (n=4) and CVA (n=3). Findings indicated that interaction with the EyeToy interface appeared to be more intuitive than the use of the Wii-mote interaction device, although some participants had difficulty navigating the menu of the PlayStation EyeToy. The second study involved evaluation of six participants (SCI=4 males, TBI=1 male, CVA=1 female), aged between 25 and 58 years. The investigator was able to increase or decrease the difficulty of a game (developed specifically for bimanual rehabilitation task), using an off-the-shelf haptic feedback device, for each participant, depending on their skill level so that each participant was able to work at a level that was challenging to them. In both studies, participants reported that they would be more motivated to exercise if playing these types of games in both the clinic and home setting. Conclusion: This series of usability tests is the first phase within a program of work using gaming for a range of physical disabilities. The use of virtual reality and video games for rehabilitation offers potential for motivating patients to perform specific therapy tasks.
2 Spontaneous Market Emergence

Drawing insights from the literature and from the author’s own survey work on contractual practices among manufacturers and traders in Africa, we study the transition from anonymous to personal to impersonal exchange. Using a dynamic game with heterogenous agents and information sharing, we derive precise conditions under which relational contracting spontaneously emerges and deters opportunistic breach even in the absence of formal market institutions. Exclusion of cheaters is not required for contracting to begin. As exchange develops, newcomers may be excluded from contracting when screening costs are high and agents long lived. Reputational equilibria in which cheaters are permanently excluded are not decentralizable unless contracting is already developed and breach of contract is interpreted as a sign of impending bankruptcy.
Closing the gap between bandit and full-information online optimization : high-probability regret bound

We demonstrate a modification of the algorithm of Dani et al for the online linear optimization problem in the bandit setting, which allows us to achieve an O( \sqrt{T ln T} ) regret bound in high probability against an adaptive adversary, as opposed to the in expectation result against an oblivious adversary of Dani et al. We obtain the same dependence on the dimension as that exhibited by Dani et al. The results of this paper rest firmly on those of Dani et al and the remarkable technique of Auer et al for obtaining high-probability bounds via optimistic estimates. This paper answers an open question: it eliminates the gap between the high-probability bounds obtained in the full-information vs bandit settings.
Increasing expertise to a novel script modulates the visual N1 ERP in healthy adults

Neural tuning to print develops when children learn to read and is reflected by a more pronounced left occipito-temporal negativity to orthographic stimuli as compared to non-orthographic false fonts or symbols after around 150–250 ms in their N1, a visual event-related potential (ERP). In adults, initial expertise for a novel script can emerge in less than 2 hours through repeated exposure or training. Here, we aimed to assess changes in the visual N1 related to the process of learning associations between unknown written characters and familiar, spoken syllables or words. Thirty-two healthy literate adults learned to associate a set of foreign characters with either syllables or German words within a single experimental session. EEG was recorded during a visual one-back character repetition detection task in which trained characters, untrained characters and familiar letters were presented before and after the training. A bilateral occipito-temporal increase in the N1 negativity with training was only found for the newly learned characters, but not for the control characters. In conclusion, the present data indicate that expertise to novel characters can be induced by a short character–sound association training and is reflected by a bilateral modulation of the visual N1 amplitude. However, no differentiation was found regarding the comparison of word or syllable training, indicating that the visual N1 most likely reflects gaining expertise driven by phonological associations common to both training types.
A Comparative Study of Psychological Wellbeing between Orphan and Non-orphan Children in Addis Ababa : The Case of Three Selected Schools in Yeka Sub-city By Afework

i Acknowledgement I would like to express my gratitude of all who generously gave their time, energy and knowledge in helping me while understanding this research. Without the contribution of these people the study could not have come to completion. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Ato Daniel Tefera and Ato Teshwal Ashagrie my thesis advisors, for their efforts in providing me with relevant advice, critical comments and constructive suggestion throughout the course of my thesis work. Further, this study could not have been concluded without the deep love and the real commitment of my best friends Engida Sisay, Eyosiyas Yilma, Henok Senay, Natnael Terefe. Furthermore, I want to express my deepest love, acknowledgment, and appreciation to my beloved family: for their love, support and wisdom; without them I never could have made it this far. It also want to extend my deepest gratified to the study participants for providing me with invaluable information without any kind of inhabitations.
Chinese authorial identity: a model for scoring the Student Authorship Questionnaire

ABSTRACT This study explores authorial identity and plagiarism among Chinese students studying accounting and business in China by drawing on Pittam et al.’s [2009, “Student Beliefs and Attitudes about Authorial Identity in Academic Writing. ” Studies in Higher Education 34 (2): 153–170] Student Authorship Questionnaire (SAQ). Chinese students’ attitudes to authorship and plagiarism are reported as being similar to those of UK students from the same disciplinary background. This finding challenges the traditional view that Chinese students, because of cultural influences, are less likely to take ownership of their writing and more accepting of plagiarism than Western students. The study also investigates the psychometric properties of the SAQ in the context of Chinese students and offers a distinct Chinese model for scoring the instrument which takes account of Chinese students’ approaches to writing and, in particular, reflects the paradox of the Chinese learner.
Applying particle swarm optimization to software performance prediction an introduction to the approach

Component-Based System (CBS) is an approach to build applications from deployed components. It provides efficiency, reliability, maintainability. The challenge of interpreting the results of performance analysis and generate alternative design to build component system is quite critical in the software performance domain. Although, many approaches have been proposed and were successfully applied to predict software performance, still span of design space hinder the selection of the appropriate design alternative. Meta-heuristics such as Genetic Algorithms (GA) methods have proven its usefulness to solve the problem even with multi-degree of freedom. But, in recent investigations Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), an alternative search technique, often outperformed GA when applied to various problems. In this paper we describe performance prediction approach based on PSO for component-Based system development. The proposed approach aids developers to effectively trades-off between architectural designs alternatives. Boundary search technique and PSO are used to provoke more efficient results. To the best of our knowledge we are the first who employ PSO in software performance prediction. Outlines of our approach are presented and a case study applied using GA is described to be used by our approach for validation. This paper has concluded that, PSO technique can be used to effectively generate alternatives in spanned design space and facilitate the design decision during the development process.
Hydra: Automatically Configuring Algorithms for Portfolio-Based Selection

The AI community has achieved great success in designing high-performance algorithms for hard combinatorial problems, given both considerable domain knowledge and considerable effort by human experts. Two influential methods aim to automate this process: automated algorithm configuration and portfolio-based algorithm selection. The former has the advantage of requiring virtually no domain knowledge, but produces only a single solver; the latter exploits per-instance variation, but requires a set of relatively uncorrelated candidate solvers. Here, we introduce Hydra, a novel technique for combining these two methods, thereby realizing the benefits of both. Hydra automatically builds a set of solvers with complementary strengths by iteratively configuring new algorithms. It is primarily intended for use in problem domains for which an adequate set of candidate solvers does not already exist. Nevertheless, we tested Hydra on a widely studied domain, stochastic local search algorithms for SAT, in order to characterize its performance against a well-established and highly competitive baseline. We found that Hydra consistently achieved major improvements over the best existing individual algorithms, and always at least roughly matched — and indeed often exceeded — the performance of the best portfolios of these algorithms.
Dependence of gradient moment based descriptors on affine distortions of the differentiating kernel

This article investigates how the contribution of different gradient directions to the 2nd-moment matrix (used in the Harris-detector) change by affine transformations of the low-pass filter used. It will be shown, that the transformation dependence of a Gaussian blurred (low-pass filtered) image's 2nd-moment matrix is encapsulated mainly in the 2nd-moment matrix of the same image filtered by a slightly different uniform blur. Therefore, only one additional component is required per every standard component to predict the change of gradient moment based descriptors. The linear model of this dependence is obtained by numeric methods. The obtained linear model is used to approximate the transformation occurred between the extraction of two descriptors of the same image patch. Results are presented to show advantages and drawbacks of this application.
Distinct Viral and Mutational Spectrum of Endemic Burkitt Lymphoma

Endemic Burkitt lymphoma (eBL) is primarily found in children in equatorial regions and represents the first historical example of a virus-associated human malignancy. Although Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection and MYC translocations are hallmarks of the disease, it is unclear whether other factors may contribute to its development. We performed RNA-Seq on 20 eBL cases from Uganda and showed that the mutational and viral landscape of eBL is more complex than previously reported. First, we found the presence of other herpesviridae family members in 8 cases (40%), in particular human herpesvirus 5 and human herpesvirus 8 and confirmed their presence by immunohistochemistry in the adjacent non-neoplastic tissue. Second, we identified a distinct latency program in EBV involving lytic genes in association with TCF3 activity. Third, by comparing the eBL mutational landscape with published data on sporadic Burkitt lymphoma (sBL), we detected lower frequencies of mutations in MYC, ID3, TCF3 and TP53, and a higher frequency of mutation in ARID1A in eBL samples. Recurrent mutations in two genes not previously associated with eBL were identified in 20% of tumors: RHOA and cyclin F (CCNF). We also observed that polyviral samples showed lower numbers of somatic mutations in common altered genes in comparison to sBL specimens, suggesting dual mechanisms of transformation, mutation versus virus driven in sBL and eBL respectively.
The role of Pi recycling processes during photosynthesis in phosphate-deficient bean plants

Bean plants (Phaseolus vulgaris L. cv. Zlota Saxa) were grown on complete (control plants) and phosphate-deficient (low-P plants) culture solutions for 17d. Phosphate deficiency markedly reduced leaf growth, but only slightly decreased the photosynthesis rate. The intensity of reactions releasing inorganic orthophosphate during photosynthesis was examined. In the leaves of low-P plants the pools of photorespiratory metabolites (glycolate and glycine + serine) were markedly increased. At the same time synthesis of soluble sugars from intermediates of glycolic acid cycle was probably enhanced. In low-P leaves the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase activity and malate synthesis were increased. Phosphoenolpyruvate and malate were effectively used for amino acid synthesis. Both aspartate and alanine accumulation was twice higher in low-P leaves. It was found that no enhancement in starch and sucrose synthesis rate takes place in phosphate deficient bean leaves. Modifications of photosynthetic metabolism observed under moderate phosphate deficiency facilitate plants acclimation to low-P conditions by enhancement of P i recirculation during glycolic and phosphoenolpyruvate metabolism.