Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rapid divergence and postglacial colonization in western North American Steller's jays (Cyanocitta stelleri)

Post‐Pleistocene avian colonization of deglaciated North America occurred from multiple refugia, including a coastal refugium in the northwest. The location of a Pacific Coastal refugium is controversial; however, multiple lines of evidence suggest that it was located near the Queen Charlotte Islands (also known as Haida Gwaii). The Queen Charlotte Islands contain a disproportionately large number of endemic plants and animals including the Steller's jay Cyanocitta stelleri carlottae. Using five highly variable microsatellite markers, we studied population structure among eight populations of Steller's jay (N = 150) from geographical areas representing three subspecies in western North America: C. s. carlottae, C. s. stelleri and C. s. annectens. Microsatellite analyses revealed genetic differentiation between each of the three subspecies, although more extensive sampling of additional C. s. annectens populations is needed to clarify the level of subspecies differentiation. High levels of population structure were found among C. s. stelleri populations with significant differences in all but two pairwise comparisons. A significant isolation by distance pattern was observed amongst populations in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. In the C. s. carlottae population, there was evidence of reduced genetic variation, higher number of private alleles than northern C. s. stelleri populations and higher levels of divergence between Queen Charlotte Island and other populations. We were unable to reject the hypothesis that the Queen Charlotte Islands served as a refugium during the Pleistocene. Steller's jay may have colonized the Queen Charlotte Islands near the end of the last glaciation or persisted throughout the Pleistocene, and this subspecies may thus represent a glacial relic. The larger number of private alleles, despite reduced genetic variation, morphological distinctiveness and high divergence from other populations suggests that the Queen Charlotte Island colonization pre‐dates that of the mainland. Furthermore, our results show rapid divergence in Steller's jay populations on the mainland following the retreat of the ice sheets.
"Creeping" or just information seeking? Gender differences in partner monitoring in response to jealousy on Facebook

New media, such as Facebook, has implications for romantic relationships, including easing the ability to monitor a partner’s activities. Across two studies we demonstrate that in response to feelings of jealousy, women are more likely than men to monitor their partner’s activities on Facebook. In Study 1, participants were exposed to one of three experimental conditions meant to provoke jealousy, and their search time on a simulated Facebook environment was recorded. Jealousy predicted more time searching for women, but less for men. In Study 2, a dyadic daily experience study, on days when women (but not men) reported greater jealousy they spent more time monitoring their partner on Facebook, and anxious attachment was one mechanism that explained this association. The results are discussed in terms of gender differences in attachment and response to feelings of jealousy.
Pharyngeal Colonization by Streptococcus pneumoniae in Older Children and Adolescents in a Geographical Area Characterized by Relatively Limited Pneumococcal Vaccination Coverage

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the relation between colonization and vaccination status with pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) in older children and adolescents living in an area characterized by relatively limited vaccination coverage. Methods: Oropharyngeal swabs were obtained from 2076 randomly selected healthy school-age children and adolescents, and the extracted genomic DNA was tested for Streptococcus pneumoniae by means of real-time polymerase chain reaction. All of the positive cases were subsequently serotyped, and the association between vaccination status with the heptavalent PCV (PCV7) and pneumococcal colonization was determined. Results: S. pneumoniae was identified in the oropharyngeal swabs of 1201 subjects (57.9%), and its prevalence declined with age (74.9% in subjects aged <10 years, 51.8% in those aged 10–14 years and 32.7% in those aged ≥15 years; P < 0.001). There were more carriers of any pneumococcal serotype, any of the serotypes in PCV7, or any of the 6 additional serotypes in 13-valent PCV (PCV13) among the vaccinated than the unvaccinated subjects, but no association emerged after adjustment for age and other selected covariates. Sub-analyses by serotype and age groups revealed significant differences in the case of serotypes 3 and 19A among children aged <10 years (odds ratios of 2.03 and 2.18, respectively). Conclusions: These results show the absence of any long-term effect of PCV7 on colonization, and raise doubts concerning the recent suggestion to use carriage to evaluate the efficacy of PCVs. The high prevalence of carriers in all of the age groups independent of previous pneumococcal vaccination indicates that further studies are needed to evaluate whether the extensive use of PCVs in healthy older children and adolescents might reduce pharyngeal colonization of these subjects thereby increasing herd immunity.
Xenopus Actin Depolymerizing Factor/Cofilin (XAC) Is Responsible for the Turnover of Actin Filaments in Listeria monocytogenes Tails

In contrast to the slow rate of depolymerization of pure actin in vitro, populations of actin filaments in vivo turn over rapidly. Therefore, the rate of actin depolymerization must be accelerated by one or more factors in the cell. Since the actin dynamics in Listeria monocytogenes tails bear many similarities to those in the lamellipodia of moving cells, we have used Listeria as a model system to isolate factors required for regulating the rapid actin filament turnover involved in cell migration. Using a cell-free Xenopus egg extract system to reproduce the Listeria movement seen in a cell, we depleted candidate depolymerizing proteins and analyzed the effect that their removal had on the morphology of Listeria tails. Immunodepletion of Xenopus actin depolymerizing factor (ADF)/cofilin (XAC) from Xenopus egg extracts resulted in Listeria tails that were approximately five times longer than the tails from undepleted extracts. Depletion of XAC did not affect the tail assembly rate, suggesting that the increased tail length was caused by an inhibition of actin filament depolymerization. Immunodepletion of Xenopus gelsolin had no effect on either tail length or assembly rate. Addition of recombinant wild-type XAC or chick ADF protein to XAC-depleted extracts restored the tail length to that of control extracts, while addition of mutant ADF S3E that mimics the phosphorylated, inactive form of ADF did not reduce the tail length. Addition of excess wild-type XAC to Xenopus egg extracts reduced the length of Listeria tails to a limited extent. These observations show that XAC but not gelsolin is essential for depolymerizing actin filaments that rapidly turn over in Xenopus extracts. We also show that while the depolymerizing activities of XAC and Xenopus extract are effective at depolymerizing normal filaments containing ADP, they are unable to completely depolymerize actin filaments containing AMPPNP, a slowly hydrolyzible ATP analog. This observation suggests that the substrate for XAC is the ADP-bound subunit of actin and that the lifetime of a filament is controlled by its nucleotide content.
Modeling Statistical Learning and Response Inhibition with the Change Signal Task

The change signal task is a two alternative forced choice task with the addition of a change signal presented on 1/3 of the trials at some delay relative to the initial stimulus. The change signal indicates to participants that they should inhibit their initial choice and respond with the other alternative. It provides an opportunity to examine the cognitive mechanisms involved in statistical learning and response inhibition. Within the task, change signal delays are associated with stimulus color, and are adjusted independently with a step function to produce high and low error conditions. Observed data show a significant difference in reaction times between these two conditions. In this paper we propose a model for the change signal task that leverages existing declarative memory mechanisms in ACT-R as a surrogate for the implicit contextual learning observed in human trials. We compare the mechanisms in this model briefly to an existing neural account, and use the model to predict the consequences of cue-conditional reversal.
Evolution of Resistant M414T Mutants among Hepatitis C Virus Replicon Cells Treated with Polymerase Inhibitor A-782759

ABSTRACT Treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) replicon cells with any single specific anti-HCV inhibitor in vitro leads to a rapid selection of resistant mutants. However, the source and the kinetic evolution of these resistant mutants during treatment are poorly understood. In this study we developed allele-specific real-time PCR assays for quantitative detection of the M414T mutant that was selected by a number of benzothiadiazine HCV polymerase inhibitors. Low levels of preexisting M414T mutants were detected in both 1b-con1 (0.22%) and 1b-N (0.18%) subgenomic replicon cell lines, as well as in 6 of 15 HCV RNA isolated from the sera of treatment-naive HCV-infected patients ranging from 0.11 to 0.60%. The proportion of M414T mutants in replicons rapidly increased in a dose-dependent manner upon treatment with benzothiadiazine inhibitor A-782759. After 4 days of treatment, 2.5, 26, or 60% of the replicon population contained M414T mutants with the use of A-782759 at 1×, 10×, or 100× its 50% effective concentration, respectively. In addition, the short 4-day treatment resulted in significant changes in inhibitor susceptibility in the replicon cells. Our results indicated that the resistant mutant preexisted as a minor population in replicon cells and that the mutant was selected within days of treatment with the inhibitor. The findings from this study suggested that early application of combination therapy of an HCV-specific inhibitor with interferon-based regimens or other classes of available inhibitors will be necessary to avoid quick viral rebound or treatment failure.
System State Estimation Considering EV Penetration With Unknown Behavior Using Quasi-Newton Method

The growing population of electric vehicles (EVs) is resulting in the aggregate stochastic charging demand which puts additional pressure on the peak load. Therefore, the importance of having an accurate system state estimation (SSE) arises as some EV user behavior is unknown. In this paper, a new approach is proposed for forecasting EV charging load with both predictable and unknown user behaviors. The forecast charging load is then integrated with predictable base power load (load without EVs) and converted into system state forecast. An effective SSE algorithm based on quasi-Newton (QN) method is proposed to obtain a faster, more accurate and yet more reliable state estimation under potential forecast and measurement errors. The efficiency of the proposed approach is assessed with IEEE 14-bus and 30-bus systems using actual travel survey statistics and base load records. Finally, the estimation accuracy and computation time required are compared with weighted least square (WLS) method and extended Kalman filter (EKF) method. It is shown that the proposed QN method has the best performance under most scenarios.
Descartes' Baby: How the Science of Child Development Explains What Makes Us Human

All humans see the world in two fundamentally different ways: even babies have a rich understanding of both the physical and social worlds. They expect objects to obey principles of physics, and they're startled when things disappear or defy gravity. Yet they can also read emotions and respond with anger, sympathy, and joy.In' Descartes' Baby', Bloom draws on a wealth of scientific discoveries to show how these two ways of knowing give rise to such uniquely human traits as humor, disgust, religion, art, and morality. How our dualist perspective, developed throughout our lives, profoundly influences our thoughts, feelings, and actions is the subject of this richly rewarding book.
Constructing a safe research environment: Technology talk between researchers and volunteer research subjects

This paper analyses how talk between researchers and their volunteer human subjects works to construct a safe and supportive environment in a laboratory setting where women volunteers participate in the development of a new imaging technology with potential for diagnosing breast cancer. Drawing on discourse analysis perspectives, we explore the work talk has to do in order to facilitate the instrumental, ethical and social dimensions of the interaction between researchers, volunteers and technology. An important cross-cutting theme is the use of various discursive strategies by both researchers and volunteers to manage perceptions of risk and construct a safe research environment, which will foster the active cooperation from volunteers necessary to achieve successful research outcomes. We draw attention to the interactive and two-way character of the technology talk observed in our research setting and how it co-produces researchers, volunteer subjects and the technology and supports the working social relationship between them that is vital to success.
An Empirical Study on the Comparison between Strategies on Oral English Classes and Writing English Classes.

Nowadays, English writing and speaking have received more and more attention at home and abroad. Both scholars and educators have done research on second language learning, especially the learning strategies to facilitate the learning and teaching of English. Among all the branches of English, speaking and writing rank to the most important compared with others. The present study aims to find out the correlation between the use of speaking and writing strategies of students with poor English. As their English is poor, they have to employ mother tongue to help their speaking and writing of a second language. The subjects of the present study are students in a vocational institute, who wan correlation t to go abroad after two or three years’ study there. Therefore, they have strong motivation. This paper investigated the correlation between their language proficiency levels and their use of strategies and found that these two are closely correlated with each other. Besides, the present study also discussed the correlation between different categories of strategies of speaking and writing, and the results show that cognitive, meta-cognitive, social strategies of speaking and writing are closely correlated. All of these give significant implications to the teachers and investigators of second language learning.
Bird fancier's lung: clinical-radiological presentation in 15 cases.

INTRODUCTION Bird fancier's lung (BFL) is a type of hypersensitivity pneumonitis occurring in response to avian antigens (usually inhaled proteins in bird feathers and droppings). The diagnosis is based on a combination of clinical, radiological, and biopsy characteristics. The present study was planned to highlight the clinico-radiological presentation in cases of BFL. MATERIAL AND METHODS The present study is a retrospective analysis of cases of bird fancier's lung diagnosed in a unit of Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute over a period of two years, from 2013-2014. The clinico-radiological features of the subjects were analysed. The diagnosis of BFL was made as per criteria laid down by Mark Schuyler and Yvon Cormier. RESULTS There were a total of fifteen cases diagnosed with BFL during the study period, comprising twelve females and three males with a mean age of 54.93 ± 14.21 years. All the studied subjects gave significant history of exposure to pigeons and were non-smokers. The period of symptoms prior to presentation varied from one to eight years. The main symptoms on presentation were exertional breathlessness and cough. Radiologically, diffuse centrilobular nodules, ground glassing - diffuse or patchy predominant in upper lobes, fibrosis with or without traction bronchiectasis, honeycombing, and mediastinal lymphadenopathy were seen. Bronchoscopy showed ill-defined granulomas and chronic interstitial inflammation. CONCLUSIONS BFL can exhibit a wide range of radiological patterns, and a high index of suspicion must be maintained, with particular attention to detailed exposure history in every case of interstitial lung disease.
Gender and party choice at the 2011 New Zealand general election

This paper investigates gender differences in voting for the two major parties (Labour and National) and the two main small parties (Green and New Zealand First) at the 2011 New Zealand general election. In contrast to the gender gap found in many post-industrial societies with women being more likely to lean towards the left than men, this study reveals limited differences in party preferences among men and women in New Zealand. The only substantial gender difference is found in relation to voting for New Zealand First, with women being substantially less supportive of the populist party than men. This gap is robust and remains substantial even when gender differences in socioeconomic characteristics and issue positions related to the role of government, the welfare state and the presence of immigrants are taken into account. Interestingly, while no gender gap occurs at first sight in support for the mainstream right-wing party National, a gap does arise once gender differences in policy issue positions are controlled for, with women being more likely to support National than men.
Skala Pengukuran dan Jumlah Respon Skala Likert

Kemudahan penyusunan skala likert sebagai alat ukur perilaku individu perlu diperhatikan dengan hati-hati untuk menghindari kesalahan dalam analisis data. Beberapa peneliti menggolongkan skala likert kedalam dua skala yang berbeda yaitu ada yang mengolongkan kedalam skala ordinal dan yang lain menggolongkan kedalam skala interval. Setelah mereview beberapa tulisan dari peneliti yang berbeda, penulis berpendapat bahwa skala likert yang menggunakan skor total dari semua butir pertanyaan adalah skala interval. Dilain pihak, butir pertanyaan yang menggunakan tipe data likert mempunyai skala pengukuran ordinal. Jumlah titik respon yang disarankan penulis adalah 7 berdasarkan atas preferensi responden yang paling responden suka terhadap jumlah respon ini. Disamping itu, jumlah titik respon 7 juga mempunyai reliabilitas, validitas, kekuatan diskriminasi, dan stabilitas yang cukup baik.
Bruno Leoni's Legacy and Continued Relevance

In his famous book, Freedom and the Law, originally published in 1961, Italian lawyer-economist Bruno Leoni posed the question of whether over the long run a society and legal system premised primarily on legislative law-making could sustain a system of individual liberty, or whether such a system required a common law-style foundation to support it. In this article I evaluate Leoni’s challenge and find that his predictions about the nature of a legislative-centered legal system not only are more relevant than ever, but that recent tendencies toward extreme and arbitrary law-making by executive edict are consistent with the trends and intellectual principles that Leoni identified over 50 years ago. By identifying the underlying jurisprudential theories that generated the current state of affairs, Leoni’s warnings are even more relevant today than ever before.
Technology management routines that matter to technology managers

This study addresses the fragmentation in the technology management field by identifying and organising the routines used by managers of technology. In a multi-method, iterative qualitative study done jointly between academics and technology managers from a number of large industrial firms, 27 technology management routines were identified. These 27 routines were organised into a framework consisting of four categories: producing scientific and technological knowledge, transforming knowledge into working artefacts, linking artefacts with user requirements, and providing organisational support. This framework provides an organising scheme to make sense of technology management routines. In addition, because managers of technology actively participated in developing the routines, the study contributes by identifying routines practitioners regard as particularly important. Both research and practical implications are derived from the framework. 111 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 2011 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30
Effects of rapid weight loss on mood and performance among amateur boxers

Aims—To examine the effects of rapid weight loss on mood and performance among amateur boxers. Methods—Participants were 16 experienced amateur boxers. In stage 1, structured interviews were used to assess the type of strategies that boxers used to reduce weight and the value of performing at their desired weight in terms of performance. In stage 2, boxers completed a 4 × 2 minute (1 minute recovery) circuit training session. Boxers completed the circuit training session on three different occasions with a week between each. The first test was used to familiarise the boxers with the circuit training task; the second and third tasks were at their training weight and championship weight, respectively. Participants were given one week to reduce their body weight to their championship weight using their preferred weight making strategies; boxers reduced their body weight by an average of 5.16% of body weight. Results—Boxers typically lost weight by restricting fluid and food intake in the week leading to competition. Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance results indicated that rapid weight loss among boxers was associated with poor performance, increased anger, fatigue, and tension, and reduced vigour. Conclusions—Strategies used to make weight by boxers are associated with poor performance and a negative mood profile.
A Pointwise Approach to Pronunciation Estimation for a TTS Front-End

In this paper, we propose a pointwise approach to the Japanese TTS front-end. In this approach, phoneme sequence estimation of sentences is decomposed into two tasks: word segmentation of the input sentence and phoneme estimation of each word. Then these two tasks are solved by pointwise classifiers without referring to the neighboring classification results. In contrast to existing sequence-based methods, an n-gram model based on sequences of word-phoneme pairs for example, this framework enables us to use various language resources such as sentences in which only a few words are annotated, or an unsegmented list of compound words, among others. In the experiments, we compared a joint tri-gram model with the combination of a pointwise word segmenter and a pointwise phoneme sequence estimator. The results showed that our framework successfully enables a TTS front-end to refer to a partially annotated corpus and/or a word sequence list annotated with phoneme sequences to realize a far larger improvement in accuracy.