Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comprehensive Gene-Based Association Study of a Chromosome 20 Linked Region Implicates Novel Risk Loci for Depressive Symptoms in Psychotic Illness

Background Prior genomewide scans of schizophrenia support evidence of linkage to regions of chromosome 20. However, association analyses have yet to provide support for any etiologically relevant variants. Methods We analyzed 2988 LD-tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 327 genes on chromosome 20, to test for association with schizophrenia in 270 Irish high-density families (ISHDSF, N = 270 families, 1408 subjects). These SNPs were genotyped using an Illumina iSelect genotyping array which employs the Infinium assay. Given a previous report of novel linkage with chromosome 20p using latent classes of psychotic illness in this sample, association analysis was also conducted for each of five factor-derived scores based on the Operational Criteria Checklist for Psychotic Illness (delusions, hallucinations, mania, depression, and negative symptoms). Tests of association were conducted using the PDTPHASE and QPDTPHASE packages of UNPHASED. Empirical estimates of gene-wise significance were obtained by adaptive permutation of a) the smallest observed P-value and b) the threshold-truncated product of P-values for each locus. Results While no single variant was significant after LD-corrected Bonferroni-correction, our gene-dropping analyses identified loci which exceeded empirical significance criteria for both gene-based tests. Namely, R3HDML and C20orf39 are significantly associated with depressive symptoms of schizophrenia (P emp<2×10−5) based on the minimum P-value and truncated-product methods, respectively. Conclusions Using a gene-based approach to family-based association, R3HDML and C20orf39 were found to be significantly associated with clinical dimensions of schizophrenia. These findings demonstrate the efficacy of gene-based analysis and support previous evidence that chromosome 20 may harbor schizophrenia susceptibility or modifier loci.
Implicit-storing and redundant-encoding-of-attribute information in error-correction-codes

This paper proposes implicit-storing to extend the logical capacity of a memory array without increasing its physical capacity by leveraging the array's error-correction-codes to infer the implicitly stored bits. Implicit-storing is related to error-code-tagging, a technique that distinguishes between faults in data and invariant attributes of a location when the attributes are not stored in the memory array but are encoded in the error-correction-codes. Both error-code-tagging and implicit-storing cause a code-strength reduction due to their encoding of additional information in the code meant to only protect data. Redundant-encoding-of-attributes is introduced to improve the strength of a code by encoding same information in multiple code words in a cache or memory. We demonstrate how EREA and IREA, two derivatives of redundant-encoding, alleviate the code-strength reduction experienced by error-code-tagging and implicit-storing respectively. Implementing the proposed methods requires minor modifications in the encoding and decoding logic of the baseline error-correction scheme used in this work. The paper discusses several uses of the proposed schemes to help demonstrate their usefulness.
A Psychometric Analysis of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey in the South African Police Service

The objectives of this study, which was undertaken by two members of the WorkWell Research Unit, were to validate the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS) for the South African Police Service and to determine the construct equivalence of this Inventory and bias for different race groups. A cross-sectional survey design was used. Stratified random samples (N=2396) were taken of police members from nine provinces in South Africa. The study was based on the MBI-GS and a biographical questionnaire. Structural equation modelling confirmed a 3-factor model of burnout, consisting of Exhaustion, Cynicism and Professional Efficacy. All three factors showed acceptable internal consistencies. An exploratory factor analysis with target rotations confirmed the construct equivalence of the three factors for different race groups in the SAPS. No evidence was found for uniform or non-uniform bias of the items of the MBI-GS for different race groups.
Complementary activation of peripheral natural killer cell immunity in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

NK cells and αβ‐ and γδ‐CTL play important roles in cellular immunity against tumors. We previously demonstrated that NPC patients have a quantitative and qualitative deficit in γδ‐CTL and EBV‐specific αβ‐CTL when compared to normal subjects and NPC long‐term survivors. In this study we report further observations of a complementary activation of peripheral NK cells in NPC patients. The NK cells in these patients, compared to those of healthy subjects and NPC survivors, were preferentially activated in response to the stimulation of myeloma cell line XG‐7 and expanded in the presence of exogenous IL‐2. The production of IFN‐γ was lowest in the patient group, whereas IL‐12, IL‐15 and TNF‐α were produced in higher levels in patients than in the donors and survivors. The cytolytic effect of the NK cells against NPC cells in the patient group was also higher than that of the donors and survivors. Furthermore, the patients at later stages of NPC had lower γδ‐CTL activity but higher NK cytotoxicity towards NPC targets, with higher production of IL‐12, IL‐15 and TNF‐α but lower production of IFN‐γ than in patients at earlier stages. This might be part of a triggered compensatory re‐activation of the innate immunity, believed to be mediated through various cytokines and chemokines when adaptive T cell immunity is breached. Together, these data suggest complementary roles of innate and adaptive immune response in tumor immunity where NK cells, γδ‐ and αβ‐CTL compensate for the deficits of one another at different stages of tumor invasion. (Cancer Sci 2006; 97: 912–919)
Efficient Coding of Natural Scenes in the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus: Experimental Test of a Computational Theory

A recent computational theory suggests that visual processing in the retina and the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) serves to recode information into an efficient form (Atick and Redlich, 1990). Information theoretic analysis showed that the representation of visual information at the level of the photoreceptors is inefficient, primarily attributable to a high degree of spatial and temporal correlation in natural scenes. It was predicted, therefore, that the retina and the LGN should recode this signal into a decorrelated form or, equivalently, into a signal with a “white” spatial and temporal power spectrum. In the present study, we tested directly the prediction that visual processing at the level of the LGN temporally whitens the natural visual input. We recorded the responses of individual neurons in the LGN of the cat to natural, time-varying images (movies) and, as a control, to white-noise stimuli. Although there is substantial temporal correlation in natural inputs (Dong and Atick, 1995b), we found that the power spectra of LGN responses were essentially white. Between 3 and 15 Hz, the power of the responses had an average variation of only ±10.3%. Thus, the signals that the LGN relays to visual cortex are temporarily decorrelated. Furthermore, the responses of X-cells to natural inputs can be well predicted from their responses to white-noise inputs. We therefore conclude that whitening of natural inputs can be explained largely by the linear filtering properties (Enroth-Cugell and Robson, 1966). Our results suggest that the early visual pathway is well adapted for efficient coding of information in the natural visual environment, in agreement with the prediction of the computational theory.
Perceiving Distance: A Role of Effort and Intent

Perceiving egocentric distance is not only a function of the optical variables to which it relates, but also a function of people's current physiological potential to perform intended actions. In a set of experiments, we showed that, as the effort associated with walking increases, perceived distance increases if the perceiver intends to walk the extent, but not if the perceiver intends to throw. Conversely, as the effort associated with throwing increases, perceived distance increases if people intend to throw to the target, but not if they intend to walk. Perceiving distance combines the geometry of the world with our behavior goals and the potential of our body to achieve these goals.
Impairment of decision-making in multiple sclerosis: A neuroeconomic approach

Objective: To assess the decision-making impairment in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and how they relate to other cognitive domains. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional analysis in 84 patients with MS, and 21 matched healthy controls using four tasks taken from behavioral economics: (1) risk preferences, (2) choice consistency, (3) delay of gratification, and (4) rate of learning. All tasks were conducted using real-world reward outcomes (food or money) in different real-life conditions. Participants underwent cognitive examination using the Brief Repeatable Battery-Neuropsychology. Results: Patients showed higher risk aversion (general propensity to choose the lottery was 0.51 vs 0.64, p = 0.009), a trend to choose more immediate rewards over larger but delayed rewards (p = 0.108), and had longer reactions times (p = 0.033). Choice consistency and learning rates were not different between groups. Progressive patients chose slower than relapsing patients. In relation to general cognitive impairments, we found correlations between impaired decision-making and impaired verbal memory (r = 0.29, p = 0.009), visual memory (r = −0.37, p = 0.001), and reduced processing speed (r = −0.32, p = 0.001). Normalized gray matter volume correlated with deliberation time (r = −0.32, p = 0.005). Conclusion: Patients with MS suffer significant decision-making impairments, even at the early stages of the disease, and may affect patients’ quality and social life.
Effects of Diet Soda on Gut Hormones in Youths With Diabetes

OBJECTIVE In patients with type 2 diabetes, but not type 1 diabetes, abnormal secretion of incretins in response to oral nutrients has been described. In healthy youths, we recently reported accentuated glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) secretion in response to a diet soda sweetened with sucralose and acesulfame-K. In this study, we examined the effect of diet soda on gut hormones in youths with diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Subjects aged 12–25 years with type 1 diabetes (n = 9) or type 2 diabetes (n = 10), or healthy control participants (n = 25) drank 240 mL cola-flavored caffeine-free diet soda or carbonated water, followed by a 75-g glucose load, in a randomized, cross-over design. Glucose, C-peptide, GLP-1, glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (GIP), and peptide Tyr-Tyr (PYY) were measured for 180 min. Glucose and GLP-1 have previously been reported for the healthy control subjects. RESULTS GLP-1 area under the curve (AUC) was 43% higher after ingestion of diet soda versus carbonated water in individuals with type 1 diabetes (P = 0.020), similar to control subjects (34% higher, P = 0.029), but was unaffected by diet soda in patients with type 2 diabetes (P = 0.92). Glucose, C-peptide, GIP, and PYY AUC were not statistically different between the two conditions in any group. CONCLUSIONS Ingestion of diet soda before a glucose load augmented GLP-1 secretion in type 1 diabetic and control subjects but not type 2 diabetic subjects. GIP and PYY secretion were not affected by diet soda. The clinical significance of this increased GLP-1 secretion, and its absence in youths with type 2 diabetes, needs to be determined.
A Platform for RFID Security and Privacy Administration (Awarded Best Paper!)

This paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of the RFID Guardian, the first-ever unified platform for RFID security and privacy administration. The RFID Guardian resembles an "RFID firewall," that monitors and controls access to RFID tags by combining a standard-issue RFID reader with unique RFID tag emulation capabilities. Our system provides a platform for both automated and coordinated usage of RFID security mechanisms, offering fine-grained control over RFID-based auditing, key management, access control, and authentication capabilities. We have prototyped the RFID Guardian using off-the-shelf components, and our experience has shown that active mobile devices are a valuable tool for managing the security of RFID tags in a variety of applications, including protecting low-cost tags that are unable to regulate their own usage. More philosophically, RFID technology vividly illustrates the difficulties of security administration in a world of increasingly pervasive, decentralized, low-cost, and low-power computing. Our paper thus also offers a glimpse of what system administration may be like in the future, when laymen face the responsibility to manage systems of tiny computers that they are barely aware of.
Multiple Binding Sites on the Pyrin Domain of ASC Protein Allow Self-association and Interaction with NLRP3 Protein*

Background: Pyrin domains (PYDs) mediate the assembly of inflammasome complexes, but PYD interaction modes are not well characterized. Results: Interaction sites were identified on the PYD of the inflammasome adaptor protein, ASC. Conclusion: ASC PYD has multiple binding sites allowing self-association and interaction with binding partners. Significance: Understanding molecular details of inflammasome assembly may lead to development of anti-inflammatory agents. A key process underlying an innate immune response to pathogens or cellular stress is activation of members of the NOD-like receptor family, such as NLRP3, to assemble caspase-1-activating inflammasome complexes. Activated caspase-1 processes proinflammatory cytokines into active forms that mediate inflammation. Activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome is also associated with common diseases including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and Alzheimer disease. However, the molecular details of NLRP3 inflammasome assembly are not established. The adaptor protein ASC plays a key role in inflammasome assembly. It is composed of an N-terminal pyrin domain (PYD) and a C-terminal caspase recruitment domain, which are protein interaction domains of the death fold superfamily. ASC interacts with NLRP3 via a homotypic PYD interaction and recruits procaspase-1 via a homotypic caspase recruitment domain interaction. Here we demonstrate that ASC PYD contains two distinct binding sites important for self-association and interaction with NLRP3 and the modulatory protein POP1. Modeling of the homodimeric ASC PYD complex formed via an asymmetric interaction using both sites resembles a type I interaction found in other death fold domain complexes. This interaction mode also permits assembly of ASC PYDs into filaments. Furthermore, a type I binding mode is likely conserved in interactions with NLRP3 and POP1, because residues critical for interaction of ASC PYD are conserved in these PYDs. We also demonstrate that ASC PYD can simultaneously self-associate and interact with NLRP3, rationalizing the model whereby ASC self-association upon recruitment to NLRP3 promotes clustering and activation of procaspase-1.
THE ROLE OF WILD MAMMALS IN THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF BOVINE THEILERIOSES IN EAST AFRICA*

The Theileriidae of East African wild mammals are reviewed. Three species of wild Bovidae were captured in East Africa. They were African Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer), blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) and eland (Taurotragus oryx), and all were found to be naturally infected with Theileria species. These animals were studied to determine the transmissibility and pathogenicity of their theilerial infections to cattle. Adult Rhipicephalus appendiculatus ticks, which had engorged as nymphs on buffalo, transmitted fatal Theileria lawrencei infections to cattle. African buffalo were shown to be continually infective for ticks over a period of many months, demonstrating that buffalo can remain a carrier of T. lawrencei. In contrast, attempts to transmit the Theileria of wildebeest and eland to cattle through rhipicephalid ticks failed, despite the establishment of these parasites of the ticks. The significance of these results is discussed in relation to the epidemiology of bovine theilerioses. During these studies, Anaplasma marginale was transmitted by blood passage from wildebeest to splenectomized calves.
Teacher learning in language teaching=语言教学中的教师进修

Part I. Research Issues in Second Language Teacher Education: 1. The Unstudied Problem: Research in learning to teach second languages Part II. Studies of Teacher Decision-Making: 2. Teacher decision-making in the adult ESL classroom 3. Starting all over again: From teaching adults to teaching beginners Part III. Narrative Studies: 4. I'm not typical: Stories of becoming a Spanish teacher 5. Learning to teach together teaching to learn together 6. The language learner's autobiography: Examining the apprenticeship of observation Part IV. Language and Discourse-Based Studies: 7. What's in a Methodology? 8. The role of collaborative dialogue in teacher education 9. Renaming experience/reconstructing practice: Developing new understandings of teaching Part V. Teacher Learning: The Preservice Experience: 10. Learning How to Teach: a case study of teachers in the RSA Cert. 11. Student foreign language teachers' knowledge growth 12. multicultural Classrooms and cultural communities of teachers Part VI. Teacher Learning: In-School Practice: 13. The vision vs. the reality: the tensions of the TESOL practicum 14. Towards reflective teaching: curriculum development and action research Part VII. Teacher Learning: Specific Teacher Education Interventions: 15. Learning how to teach ESL writing 16. When input becomes intake: tracing the sources of teachers' attitude change 17. Theorizing from practice: case studies of training ESL teachers through structural reflection.
α-Oscillations in the monkey sensorimotor network influence discrimination performance by rhythmical inhibition of neuronal spiking

Extensive work in humans using magneto- and electroencephalography strongly suggests that decreased oscillatory α-activity (8–14 Hz) facilitates processing in a given region, whereas increased α-activity serves to actively suppress irrelevant or interfering processing. However, little work has been done to understand how α-activity is linked to neuronal firing. Here, we simultaneously recorded local field potentials and spikes from somatosensory, premotor, and motor regions while a trained monkey performed a vibrotactile discrimination task. In the local field potentials we observed strong activity in the α-band, which decreased in the sensorimotor regions during the discrimination task. This α-power decrease predicted better discrimination performance. Furthermore, the α-oscillations demonstrated a rhythmic relation with the spiking, such that firing was highest at the trough of the α-cycle. Firing rates increased with a decrease in α-power. These findings suggest that α-oscillations exercise a strong inhibitory influence on both spike timing and firing rate. Thus, the pulsed inhibition by α-oscillations plays an important functional role in the extended sensorimotor system.
Schema Networks: Zero-shot Transfer with a Generative Causal Model of Intuitive Physics

The recent adaptation of deep neural network-based methods to reinforcement learning and planning domains has yielded remarkable progress on individual tasks. Nonetheless, progress on task-to-task transfer remains limited. In pursuit of efficient and robust generalization, we introduce the Schema Network, an object-oriented generative physics simulator capable of disentangling multiple causes of events and reasoning backward through causes to achieve goals. The richly structured architecture of the Schema Network can learn the dynamics of an environment directly from data. We compare Schema Networks with Asynchronous Advantage Actor-Critic and Progressive Networks on a suite of Breakout variations, reporting results on training efficiency and zero-shot generalization, consistently demonstrating faster, more robust learning and better transfer. We argue that generalizing from limited data and learning causal relationships are essential abilities on the path toward generally intelligent systems.
Chemical Characterization and Pronase Susceptibility of the Na:K Pump-Associated Phosphoprotein of Human Red Blood Cells

The phosphoproteins formed by incubation of red cell ghosts with [γ-32P]ATP in the presence of Mg and Na + Mg have been characterized by sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The 32P-labeled phosphoprotein was seen as a single peak confined to the region of the diffuse 90,000 dalton polypeptide band; labeling with Na + Mg considerably increased the quantity of 32P-phosphoprotein contained in this band relative to labeling with Mg alone. Treatment of intact cells with Pronase known to partially hydrolyze the glycoproteins and the 90,000 daltons polypeptide did not change either the amount or the position of the 32P-phosphoprotein present in the gels. The molecular weight of the 32P-phosphoprotein is estimated to be 103,000. Pronase treatment of intact cells also did not significantly alter any of the transport parameters of the membrane such as the K pump flux, ouabain binding, or Na,K-ATPase. In contrast, treatment of ghosts with Pronase not only resulted in drastic alteration of the transport parameters but also inhibited the formation of the phosphoprotein under all conditions. Thus, while the Na:K pump is not intrinsically resistant to Pronase, those elements of the pump which are susceptible are not accessible from the outside of the cell. Further, SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis after Pronase treatment of intact cells results in a substantial increase in the purification of the phosphoprotein relative to that which was previously possible in ghosts.
Mayo's Older Americans Normative Studies: Visual Form Discrimination and copy trial of the Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure

Age-adjusted normative data are presented for persons age 70–89 years for the Visual Form Discrimination Test and Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure (copy trial only). Adjustment for the effect of education on test performance is also provided. These data were collected as part of Mayo's Older Americans Normative Studies (MOANS). The normative information provided here should prove useful for characterizing performance on these measures as well as comparing the person's performance against his or her functioning on any other test with MOANS norms. Limitations and unique features of the MOANS normative data are also discussed.