Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Visual word learning in adults with dyslexia

We investigated word learning in university and college students with a diagnosis of dyslexia and in typically-reading controls. Participants read aloud short (4-letter) and longer (7-letter) nonwords as quickly as possible. The nonwords were repeated across 10 blocks, using a different random order in each block. Participants returned 7 days later and repeated the experiment. Accuracy was high in both groups. The dyslexics were substantially slower than the controls at reading the nonwords throughout the experiment. They also showed a larger length effect, indicating less effective decoding skills. Learning was demonstrated by faster reading of the nonwords across repeated presentations and by a reduction in the difference in reading speeds between shorter and longer nonwords. The dyslexics required more presentations of the nonwords before the length effect became non-significant, only showing convergence in reaction times between shorter and longer items in the second testing session where controls achieved convergence part-way through the first session. Participants also completed a psychological test battery assessing reading and spelling, vocabulary, phonological awareness, working memory, nonverbal ability and motor speed. The dyslexics performed at a similar level to the controls on nonverbal ability but significantly less well on all the other measures. Regression analyses found that decoding ability, measured as the speed of reading aloud nonwords when they were presented for the first time, was predicted by a composite of word reading and spelling scores (“literacy”). Word learning was assessed in terms of the improvement in naming speeds over 10 blocks of training. Learning was predicted by vocabulary and working memory scores, but not by literacy, phonological awareness, nonverbal ability or motor speed. The results show that young dyslexic adults have problems both in pronouncing novel words and in learning new written words.
Reading Disappearing Text

Participants read sentences containing high- or low-frequency target words under normal reading conditions or disappearing-text conditions (in which the word that was fixated disappeared after 60 ms). Even though the fixated word had disappeared after 60 ms, there was still a robust frequency effect wherein readers fixated longer on low-frequency words than on high-frequency words. Thus, the results are consistent with cognitive-control models of eye movement control and inconsistent with visual/oculomotor-control models. Although the uptake of visual information is clearly important for reading, it is the cognitive processes associated with understanding the fixated words that drive the eyes through the text.
PPARα mediates the anti‐inflammatory effect of simvastatin in an experimental model of zymosan‐induced multiple organ failure

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Zymosan‐induced non‐septic shock is a multi‐factorial pathology that involves several organs including the kidneys, liver and lungs. Its complexity and diversity presents a continuing therapeutic challenge. Given their pleiotropic effect, statins could be beneficial in non‐septic shock. One of the molecular mechanisms underlying the anti‐inflammatory effect of statins involves the peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor (PPAR) α. We used a zymosan‐induced non‐septic shock experimental model to investigate the role of PPARα in the anti‐inflammatory effects of simvastatin.
A well-constrained estimate for the timing of the salmonid whole genome duplication reveals major decoupling from species diversification

Whole genome duplication (WGD) is often considered to be mechanistically associated with species diversification. Such ideas have been anecdotally attached to a WGD at the stem of the salmonid fish family, but remain untested. Here, we characterized an extensive set of gene paralogues retained from the salmonid WGD, in species covering the major lineages (subfamilies Salmoninae, Thymallinae and Coregoninae). By combining the data in calibrated relaxed molecular clock analyses, we provide the first well-constrained and direct estimate for the timing of the salmonid WGD. Our results suggest that the event occurred no later in time than 88 Ma and that 40–50 Myr passed subsequently until the subfamilies diverged. We also recovered a Thymallinae–Coregoninae sister relationship with maximal support. Comparative phylogenetic tests demonstrated that salmonid diversification patterns are closely allied in time with the continuous climatic cooling that followed the Eocene–Oligocene transition, with the highest diversification rates coinciding with recent ice ages. Further tests revealed considerably higher speciation rates in lineages that evolved anadromy—the physiological capacity to migrate between fresh and seawater—than in sister groups that retained the ancestral state of freshwater residency. Anadromy, which probably evolved in response to climatic cooling, is an established catalyst of genetic isolation, particularly during environmental perturbations (for example, glaciation cycles). We thus conclude that climate-linked ecophysiological factors, rather than WGD, were the primary drivers of salmonid diversification.
Analysis of medium resolution spectra by automated methods - Application to M 55 and ω Centauri

We have employed feedforward neural networks trained on synthetic spectra in the range 3800 to 5600 A with resolutions of ∼2-3 A to determine metallicities from spectra of about 1000 main-sequence turn-off, subgiant and red giant stars in the globular clusters M 55 and ω Cen. The overall metallicity accuracies are of the order of 0.15 to 0.2 dex. In addition, we tested how well the stellar parameters log g and Teff can be retrieved from such data without additional colour or photometric information. We find overall uncertainties of 0.3 to 0.4 dex for log g and 140 to 190 K for Teff. In order to obtain some measure of uncertainty for the determined values of (Fe/H), log g and Teff, we applied the bootstrap method for the first time to neural networks for this kind of parametrization problem. The distribution of metallicities for stars in ω Cen clearly shows a large spread in agreement with the well known multiple stellar populations in this cluster.
Capturing Emergent Semantics from Social Annotation Systems

The ongoing growth of the World Wide Web, catalyzed by the increasing possibility of ubiquitous access via a variety of devices, continues to strengthen its role as our prevalent information and commmunication medium. However, although tools like search engines facilitate retrieval, the task of finally making sense of Web content is still often left to human interpretation. The vision of supporting both humans and machines in such knowledge-based activities led to the development of different systems which allow to structure Web resources by metadata annotations. Interestingly, two major approaches which gained a considerable amount of attention are addressing the problem from nearly opposite directions: On the one hand, the idea of the Semantic Web suggests to formalize the knowledge within a particular domain by means of the “top-down” approach of defining ontologies. On the other hand, Social Annotation Systems as part of the so-called Web 2.0 movement implement a “bottom-up” style of categorization using arbitrary keywords. Experience as well as research in the characteristics of both systems has shown that their strengths and weaknesses seem to be inverse: While Social Annotation suffers from problems like, e. g. , ambiguity or lack or precision, ontologies were especially designed to eliminate those. On the contrary, the latter suffer from a knowledge acquisition bottleneck, which is successfully overcome by the large user populations of Social Annotation Systems. Instead of being regarded as competing paradigms, the obvious potential synergies from a combination of both motivated approaches to “bridge the gap” between them. These were fostered by the evidence of emergent semantics, i. e. , the self-organized evolution of implicit conceptual structures, within Social Annotation data. While several techniques to exploit the emergent patterns were proposed, a systematic analysis – especially regarding paradigms from the field of ontology learning – is still largely missing. This also includes a deeper understanding of the circumstances which affect the evolution processes. This work aims to address this gap by providing an in-depth study of methods and influencing factors to capture emergent semantics from Social Annotation Systems. We focus hereby on the acquisition of lexical semantics from the
Species-Specific Differences in the Expression of the HNF1A, HNF1B and HNF4A Genes

Background The HNF1A, HNF1B and HNF4A genes are part of an autoregulatory network in mammalian pancreas, liver, kidney and gut. The layout of this network appears to be similar in rodents and humans, but inactivation of HNF1A, HNF1B or HNF4A genes in animal models cause divergent phenotypes to those seen in man. We hypothesised that some differences may arise from variation in the expression profile of alternatively processed isoforms between species. Methodology/Principal Findings We measured the expression of the major isoforms of the HNF1A, HNF1B and HNF4A genes in human and rodent pancreas, islet, liver and kidney by isoform-specific quantitative real-time PCR and compared their expression by the comparative Ct (ΔΔCt) method. We found major changes in the expression profiles of the HNF genes between humans and rodents. The principal difference lies in the expression of the HNF1A gene, which exists as three isoforms in man, but as a single isoform only in rodents. More subtle changes were to the balance of HNF1B and HNF4A isoforms between species; the repressor isoform HNF1B(C) comprised only 6% in human islets compared with 24–26% in rodents (p = 0.006) whereas HNF4A9 comprised 22% of HNF4A expression in human pancreas but only 11% in rodents (p = 0.001). Conclusions/Significance The differences we note in the isoform-specific expression of the human and rodent HNF1A, HNF1B and HNF4A genes may impact on the absolute activity of these genes, and therefore on the activity of the pancreatic transcription factor network as a whole. We conclude that alterations to expression of HNF isoforms may underlie some of the phenotypic variation caused by mutations in these genes.
Testing the Unified Model with an Infrared Selected Sample of Seyferts

We present a series of statistical tests using homogeneous data and measurements for a sample of Seyfert galaxies. These galaxies were selected from mostly isotropic properties, their far infrared fluxes and warm infrared colors, which provide a considerable advantage over the criteria used by most investigators in the past, like ultraviolet excess. Our results provide strong support for a Unified Model in which Seyferts 2's contain a torus seen more edge-on than in Seyferts 1's and show that previous results showing the opposite were most likely due to selection effects.
Special Topic: Calcium Signaling the Heterogeneity of Store-operated Calcium Entry in Melanoma

Calcium is a key regulator of many physiological processes that are perturbed in cancer, such as migration, proliferation and apoptosis. The proteins STIM and Orai mediate store-operated calcium entry (SOCE), the main pathway for calcium entry in non-excitable cells. Changes in the expression and function of STIM and Orai have been found in a range of cancer types and thus implicated in disease progression. Here we discuss the role of STIM, Orai and the SOCE pathway in the progression of melanoma and explore how the heterogeneous nature of melanoma may explain the lack of consensus in the field regarding the role of SOCE in the progression of this disease.
A Bayesian approach for model identification of LPV systems with uncertain scheduling variables

This paper presents a Gaussian Process (GP) based Bayesian method that takes into account the effect of additive noise on the scheduling variables for identification of linear parameter-varying (LPV) models in input-output form. The proposed method approximates the noise-free coefficient functions by a local linear expansion on the observed scheduling variables. Therefore, additive noise on the scheduling variables is reconstructed as a corrective term added to the output noise that is proportional to the squared gradient obtained from the posterior of the Gaussian Process. An iterative procedure is given so that the obtained solution converges to the best estimation of the coefficient functions according to the given measure of fitness. Moreover, the expectation and covariance functions estimated by GP are modified for the noisy scheduling variable case to include the noise contribution on the estimated expectation and covariance functions. The model training procedure identifies noise level in the measurements including outputs and scheduling variables by estimating the noise variances, as well as other defined hyperparameters. Finally, the performance of the proposed method is compared to the standard GP approach through a numerical example.
Chromosomal location of retrotransposable REX 1 in the genomes in five Prochilodus (Teleostei

Transposable elements are repetitive DNA sequences comprising a group of segments able to move and carry sequences within the genome. Studies involving comparative genomics have revealed that most vertebrates have different populations of transposable elements with significant differences among species of the same lineage. Few studies have been conducted in fish, the most diverse group of vertebrates, with the objective to locate different types of transposable elements. Therefore, this study proposed to map the retrotransposable element Rex1 applying Fluorescent in situ Hybridization (FISH) in five species of the genus Prochilodus (Prochilodus argenteus, Prochilodus brevis, Prochilodus costatus, Prochilodus lineatus and Prochilodus nigricans). After the application of the Rex1 probe, scattered markings were found throughout the genome of analyzed species, and also the presence of small clusters located in the centromeric and telomeric regions coincident with the heterochromatin distribution pattern. This was the first description of the retrotransposable element Rex1 in Prochilodus genome seeking for a better understanding of the distribution pattern of these retrotransposons in the genome of teleost fish.
Studies related to antibody fragment (Fab) production in Escherichia coli W3110 fed‐batch fermentation processes using multiparameter flow cytometry

Microbiology is important to industry therefore rapid and statistically representative measurements of cell physiological state, proliferation, and viability are essential if informed decisions about fermentation bioprocess optimization or control are to be made, because process performance will depend largely on the number of metabolically active viable cells. Samples of recombinant Escherichia coli W3110, containing the gene for the D1.3 anti‐lysozyme Fab fragment under the control of the lac‐based expression system, were taken at various stages from fed‐batch fermentation processes and stained with a mixture of bis‐(1,3‐dibutylbarbituric acid) trimethine oxonol and propidium iodide (PI/BOX). Where appropriate, measurements of dissolved oxygen tension (DOT), OD600nm and Fab concentration were made. Depending on time of induction the maximum amount of Fab accumulating in the supernatant varied quite markedly from 1 to 4 μg ml−1 as did subsequent cell physiological state with respect to PI/BOX staining with a concomitant drop in maximum biomass concentration. Depending on point of induction a fourfold increase in Fab production could be achieved accompanied by a ∼50% drop in maximum biomass concentration but with a higher proportion of viable cells as measured by multiparameter flow cytometry. © 2008 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry
Bounded Empathy: Neural Responses to Outgroup Targets' (Mis)fortunes

The current study investigates whether mere stereotypes are sufficient to modulate empathic responses to other people's (mis)fortunes, how these modulations manifest in the brain, and whether affective and neural responses relate to endorsing harm against different outgroup targets. Participants feel least bad when misfortunes befall envied targets and worst when misfortunes befall pitied targets, as compared with ingroup targets. Participants are also least willing to endorse harming pitied targets, despite pitied targets being outgroup members. However, those participants who exhibit increased activation in functionally defined insula/middle frontal gyrus when viewing pity targets experience positive events not only report feeling worse about those events but also more willing to harm pity targets in a tradeoff scenario. Similarly, increased activation in anatomically defined bilateral anterior insula, in response to positive events, predicts increased willingness to harm envy targets, but decreased willingness to harm ingroup targets, above and beyond self-reported affect in response to the events. Stereotypes' specific content and not just outgroup membership modulates empathic responses and related behavioral consequences including harm.
Moxifloxacin versus ampicillin + gentamicin in the therapy of experimental Listeria monocytogenes meningitis.

OBJECTIVES This study aimed to compare the antibacterial activity of moxifloxacin and ampicillin + gentamicin in the treatment of Listeria monocytogenes meningitis in a rabbit meningitis model. METHODS Meningitis was induced by direct inoculation of a clinical strain isolated from an immunocompromised patient (10(7) cfu/mL) into the cisterna magna of New Zealand rabbits. After 16 h of incubation, rabbits were separated into four groups: moxifloxacin (M), ampicillin + gentamicin (A), ampicillin + gentamicin 2 (A2) and control (C). Group M received 20 mg/kg moxifloxacin at the end of the incubation time and 5 h later by intravenous (i.v.) route. Group A received ampicillin (30 mg/kg/h) and gentamicin (2.5 mg/kg/h) by i.v. route with continuous infusion for 8 h in 36 mL of 0.9% NaCl, group A2 received the same dosage of gentamicin and ampicillin in two different 36 mL 0.9% NaCl solutions and group C did not receive any treatment. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples (0.1-0.25 mL) were obtained 16 and 24 h after induction of meningitis. RESULTS At the end of the 16 h of incubation, CSF bacterial counts were similar in all groups (P > 0.05). At the final stage of the study (24 h after induction of meningitis), bacterial counts in all treatment groups were significantly lower than the control group (P < 0.05). When the three treatment groups were compared, bacterial counts were found to be similar (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS These data suggest that antibacterial activity of moxifloxacin is similar to ampicillin + gentamicin in the treatment of experimental L. monocytogenes meningitis of rabbits.
On ultrafilters and NP

The fusion method (A. Wigderson, 1993) is developed by exploring its similarities with the ultraproduct construction in model theory. We use this analogy to re-prove a result of M. Sipser (1984) regarding countable circuits, in a simpler way. In the finite case this analogy allows us to give a new characterization of co-NP in terms of the CLIQUE function. This gives a natural interpretation to the NP-completeness of the CLIQUE function. <<ETX>>
Extended Topological Metrics for the Analysis of Power Grid Vulnerability

Vulnerability analysis in power systems is a key issue in modern society and many efforts have contributed to the analysis. Recently, complex networks metrics, applied to assess the topological vulnerability of networked systems, have been used in power grids, such as the betweenness centrality. These metrics may be useful for analyzing the topological vulnerability of power systems because of a close link between their topological structure and physical behavior. However, a pure topological approach fails to capture the electrical specificity of power grids. For this reason, an extended topological method has been proposed by incorporating several electrical features, such as electrical distance, power transfer distribution, and line flow limits, into the pure topological metrics. Starting from the purely topological concept of complex networks, this paper defines an extended betweenness centrality which considers the characteristics of power grids and can measure the local importance of the elements in power grids. The line extended betweenness is compared with the topological betweenness and with the averaged power flow on each line over various operational states in the Italian power grid. The results show that the extended betweenness is superior to topological betweenness in the identification of critical components in power grids and at the same time could be a complementary tool to efficiently enhance vulnerability analysis based on electrical engineering methods.
Deformation and Fracture Behaviours of Cementite

In order to clarify the deformation and fracture behaviours of cementite, observations by an optical microscope and a scanning electron microscope were made on the slip lines and fracture surfaces which took place around Vickers hardness indenters pressed on the surface of large cementite grain in white pig iron. Although slip lines in cementite were generally straight, wavy slip lines and cross slip lines were occasionally observed under specified conditions of temperature and crystal orientation. Large dependences on deformation temperature and crystal orientation were recognized for the slipping behaviour and hardness of cementite crystal. The slipping region increased and the hardness decreased with increase in deformation temperature. These temperature effects were
Unified Error Rates Analysis of MIMO Space-Time Block Codes over Generalized Shadowed κ-μ and η-μ Fading and AWGGN

This paper presents a novel unified performance analysis of Space-Time Block Codes (STBCs) operating in the Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) network and subjected to generalized shadowed fading and noise scenarios. Specifically, we derive novel, simple and accurate average bit error rates (ABER) expressions for coherent modulation schemes in the generalized {\eta}-{\mu} and shadowed {\kappa}-{\mu} fading channels. The noise in the network is assumed to be modeled by the additive white generalized Gaussian noise (AWGGN), which encompasses the Laplacian and the Gaussian noise environments as special cases. The result obviates the need to re-derive the error rates for MIMO STBC systems under many multipath fading and noise models, while avoiding computationally-expensive expressions. Published results from the literature as well as numerical simulations corroborate the accuracy of our derived generalized expressions.