Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perceived Parental Rejection Mediates the Influence of Serotonin Transporter Gene (5-HTTLPR) Polymorphisms on Impulsivity in Japanese Adults

This study examined (1) the interrelationships among 5-HTTLPR genotype, perceived parental rejection, and impulsivity, and (2) meditational models in which perceived paternal/maternal rejection mediates the relationship between the 5-HTTLPR genotype and impulsive behaviour. Participants included 403 adults (152 males and 252 females, mean age = 24.20) who provided genetic data and a set of the questionnaires (BIS11; Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 and EMBU; Egna Minnen av Bätraffande Uppfostran). Using SEM (Structural Equation Modeling), we evaluated 3 models for both direct and indirect relationships between 5-HTTLPR (5HTT) and Impulsivity (IMP), via maternal/fraternal rejection (MAT/FAT). In model 1, the direct path from 5HTT and IMP was not significant across the mother’s and father’s analysis. Models 2 and 3 assessed the indirect influence of 5HTT on IMP through MOT/FAT. The paths of models 2 and 3 were all significant and showed a good fit between the hypothesized model and data. Furthermore, the effects of the 5-HTTLPR genotype on impulsiveness in this Japanese sample were particularly accounted for by perceived rejection from the mother or father. The effects from the parents appeared to be robust especially among males. These results may help elucidate the specific pathways of risk in relation to genetic and environment influences on impulsive phenotypes.
Transcriptional Profiling of Bacillus anthracis Sterne (34F2) during Iron Starvation

Lack of available iron is one of many environmental challenges that a bacterium encounters during infection and adaptation to iron starvation is important for the pathogen to efficiently replicate within the host. Here we define the transcriptional response of B. anthracis Sterne (34F2) to iron depleted conditions. Genome-wide transcript analysis showed that B. anthracis undergoes considerable changes in gene expression during growth in iron-depleted media, including the regulation of known and candidate virulence factors. Two genes encoding putative internalin proteins were chosen for further study. Deletion of either gene (GBAA0552 or GBAA1340) resulted in attenuation in a murine model of infection. This attenuation was amplified in a double mutant strain. These data define the transcriptional changes induced during growth in low iron conditions and illustrate the potential of this dataset in the identification of putative virulence determinants for future study.
Knowledge Sharing in Alliances and Alliance Portfolios

We develop a model of knowledge sharing in alliances and alliance portfolios. We show that, once the issue of encouraging effective collaboration is put center stage, many standard intuitions of the learning race view and alliance portfolio literature are overturned or qualified. Partners engage in learning races in some cases, but exhibit “altruistic” behaviors in other cases. They may reduce their own absorptive capacity or increase the transparency of their own operations to facilitate their partner’s learning. In alliance portfolios, we show that not all substitutability between alliance portfolio partners is bad. We distinguish between substitutability in implementation and substitutability in rival benefits and show that the latter is conducive to knowledge sharing. Our work contributes toward putting the literature on learning alliances on a more solid foundation by emphasizing the importance of commitments that leading firms can make to encourage collaboration. This paper was accepted by David Simchi-Levi, business strategy.
Dynamic Encoding of Action Selection by the Medial Striatum

Successful foragers respond flexibly to environmental stimuli. Behavioral flexibility depends on a number of brain areas that send convergent projections to the medial striatum, such as the medial prefrontal cortex, orbital frontal cortex, and amygdala. Here, we tested the hypothesis that neurons in the medial striatum are involved in flexible action selection, by representing changes in stimulus–reward contingencies. Using a novel Go/No-go reaction-time task, we changed the reward value of individual stimuli within single experimental sessions. We simultaneously recorded neuronal activity in the medial and ventral parts of the striatum of rats. The rats modified their actions in the task after the changes in stimulus–reward contingencies. This was preceded by dynamic modulations of spike activity in the medial, but not the ventral, striatum. Our results suggest that the medial striatum biases animals to collect rewards to potentially valuable stimuli and can rapidly influence flexible behavior.
Student perceptions of engagement in schools : a Deweyan analysis of authenticity in high school classrooms

STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF ENGAGEMENT IN SCHOOLS: A DEWEYAN ANALYSIS OF AUTHENTICITY IN HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOMS by Gloria D. Richards Perry This qualitative study of the nature of engagement in schools explored how students viewed the work assigned to them by their teachers. Using normative and theoretical frameworks, research was conducted to determine whether students found work to be authentic and engaging in the manner that Dewey proposes school work should be. Phenomenological interviews were used with individual participants as well as in a focus group session. Interviews and further questioning probed for information in order to gain a greater understanding of engagement from the student perspective. Furthermore, these methods afforded depth and richness that could further saturate the data. The research questions were: 1. What do students identify as important factors that influence the degree to which they can be engaged in their learning experiences? 2. As described by students, do the values, norms, and requirements that constitute school mirror similar elements of a student’s life outside of school? The analysis of participant responses supported the notion that these learners want their learning experiences to be personal, relevant, meaningful, and active. If they felt they were not getting these experiences, they shut down and/or turned the teacher off in their own head. These particular participants reported numerous examples of data that supported their need to be heard as students in the learning environment. They know what they want as learners and expect their teachers to provide the learning experiences they desire for their improvement. Participants in this study of engagement placed a high degree of emphasis on authentic learning. The data supported the notion that these participants want to have fun as they are learning but of far more importance, the data have shown they want their learning to be meaningful beyond the classroom setting. STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF ENGAGEMENT IN SCHOOLS: A DEWEYAN ANALYSIS OF AUTHENTICITY IN HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOMS by Gloria D. Richards Perry
Determinants of Perceived Ease of Use: Integrating Control, Intrinsic Motivation, and Emotion into the Technology Acceptance Model

Much previous research has established that perceived ease of use is an important factor influencing user acceptance and usage behavior of information technologies. However, very little research has been conducted to understand how that perception forms and changes over time. The current work presents and tests an anchoring and adjustment-based theoretical model of the determinants of system-specific perceived ease of use. The model proposes control (internal and external--conceptualized as computer self-efficacy and facilitating conditions, respectively), intrinsic motivation (conceptualized as computer playfulness), and emotion (conceptualized as computer anxiety) as anchors that determine early perceptions about the ease of use of a new system. With increasing experience, it is expected that system-specific perceived ease of use, while still anchored to the general beliefs regarding computers and computer use, will adjust to reflect objective usability, perceptions of external control specific to the new system environment, and system-specific perceived enjoyment. The proposed model was tested in three different organizations among 246 employees using three measurements taken over a three-month period. The proposed model was strongly supported at all points of measurement, and explained up to 60% of the variance in system-specific perceived ease of use, which is twice as much as our current understanding. Important theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Bond Liquidity Estimation and the Liquidity Effect in Yield Spreads

We provide a model to estimate bond liquidity costs using only daily prices. Our liquidity estimates are 30% correlated with the bid-ask spread and are within five basis points of the bid-ask spread for investment grade bonds. Our median liquidity estimates are approximately $0.15 for investment grade bonds which compares well with those established by Schultz (2001) or Hong and Warga (2000). Regression tests indicate that our estimate of liquidity is associated with the bid-ask spread even after controlling for the commonly used liquidity determinants. Assessing the economic significance of our liquidity estimate in relation to the yield spread, we find that our estimate of liquidity is positively associated with the yield spread regardless of controlling for the commonly used yield spread determinants. These results imply that liquidity costs exact an demonstrable influence on bond returns and are consequently a priced element of the yield spread.
Visual Task Demands and the Auditory Mismatch Negativity: An Empirical Study and a Meta-Analysis

Because the auditory system is particularly useful in monitoring the environment, previous research has examined whether task-irrelevant, auditory distracters are processed even if subjects focus their attention on visual stimuli. This research suggests that attentionally demanding visual tasks decrease the auditory mismatch negativity (MMN) to simultaneously presented auditory distractors. Because a recent behavioral study found that high visual perceptual load decreased detection sensitivity of simultaneous tones, we used a similar task (n = 28) to determine if high visual perceptual load would reduce the auditory MMN. Results suggested that perceptual load did not decrease the MMN. At face value, these nonsignificant findings may suggest that effects of perceptual load on the MMN are smaller than those of other demanding visual tasks. If so, effect sizes should differ systematically between the present and previous studies. We conducted a selective meta-analysis of published studies in which the MMN was derived from the EEG, the visual task demands were continuous and varied between high and low within the same task, and the task-irrelevant tones were presented in a typical oddball paradigm simultaneously with the visual stimuli. Because the meta-analysis suggested that the present (null) findings did not differ systematically from previous findings, the available evidence was combined. Results of this meta-analysis confirmed that demanding visual tasks reduce the MMN to auditory distracters. However, because the meta-analysis was based on small studies and because of the risk for publication biases, future studies should be preregistered with large samples (n > 150) to provide confirmatory evidence for the results of the present meta-analysis. These future studies should also use control conditions that reduce confounding effects of neural adaptation, and use load manipulations that are defined independently from their effects on the MMN.
Evolution of the u-band luminosity function from redshift 1.2 to 0

We produce and analyse u-band (λ ≈ 355 nm) luminosity functions (LFs) for the red and blue populations of galaxies using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) u-band Galaxy Survey (uGS) and Deep Evolutionary Exploratory Probe 2 (DEEP2) survey. From a spectroscopic sample of 41 575 SDSS uGS galaxies and 24 561 DEEP2 galaxies, we produce colour magnitude diagrams and make use of the colour bimodality of galaxies to separate red and blue populations. LFs for eight redshift slices in the range 0.01 < z < 1.2 are determined using the 1/V max method and fitted with Schechter functions showing that there is significant evolution in M*, with a brightening of 1.4 mag for the combined population. The integration of the Schechter functions yields the evolution in the u-band luminosity density (LD) out to z ∼ 1. By parametrizing the evolution as p ∝ (1 + z) β , we find that β = 1.36 ± 0.2 for the combined populations and β = 2.09 ± 0.2 for the blue population. By removing the contribution of the old stellar population to the u-band LD and correcting for dust attenuation, we estimate the evolution in the star formation rate (SFR) of the Universe to be β SFR = 2.5 ± 0.3. Discrepancies between our result and higher evolution rates measured using the infrared and far-UV can be reconciled by considering possibilities such as an underestimated dust correction at high redshifts or evolution in the stellar initial mass function.
METABOLISM OF SQUALENE IN TRIGLYCERIDE-RICH LIPOPROTEINS IN HUMANS

8 ABBREVIATIONS ACAT Acylcoenzyme A:cholesterol acyltransferase ANOVA Analysis of variance Apo Apolipoprotein AUC Area under curve AUIC Area under incremental curve BMI Body mass index CETP Cholesteryl ester transfer protein d Density GLC Gas-liquid chromatography HDL High-density lipoprotein HMG-CoA 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A HPLC High-pressure liquid chromatography HSPG Heparan sulphate proteoglycan IDL Intermediate-density lipoprotein LCAT Lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase LDL Low-density lipoprotein LPL Lipoprotein lipase LRP LDL receptor-related protein PLTP Phospholipid transfer protein SR-BI Scavenger receptor class B type I VLDL Very low-density lipoprotein 9 LIST OF ORIGINAL PUBLICATIONS This thesis is based on the following original articles, which are referred to in the text by their Roman numerals. In addition, some unpublished data are presented. and squalene metabolism is age dependent. Dietary squalene increases cholesterol synthesis measured with serum non-cholesterol sterols after a single oral dose in humans. Fate of intravenously administered squalene and plant sterols in human subjects. A and squalene clearances and cholesterol synthesis off and on lovastatin treatment in type III hyper-lipoproteinemia. ABSTRACT Squalene, a non-steroid obligate precursor of cholesterol, is derived from both de novo synthesis from acetyl coenzyme A and from diet. Little is known of the postprandial metabolism of squalene. However, recent evidence exists that squalene may play a role in the development of atherosclerosis such that the removal of postprandial squalene was retarded in women with coronary artery disease. Accordingly, the kinetics and metabolism of squalene in the postprandial state and after intravenous administration in humans were studied. An oral fat load test with 0.5 g of squalene was performed in six young (22-25 years) and eight old (78-79 years) males to learn whether postprandial squalene metabolism is affected by age. The acute effects of a single dose of squalene on cholesterol synthesis as measured by cholesterol precursor sterols in postprandial lipoproteins were studied in 16 subjects who underwent two oral fat challenges in random order, one with 0.5 g of squalene supplement and the other without. Removal of squalene from chylomicrons was investigated in six subjects by giving an intravenous bolus injection of artificial chylomicron-like lipid emulsion (Intralipid R) enriched with squalene. To learn whether inhibition of cholesterol absorption with a subsequent increase in cholesterol synthesis reduces postprandial squalene concentrations, three oral fat challenges with 0.5 g of squalene in each were performed in 11 mildly hypercholesterolemic subjects before and during stanol ester (3g/day) consumption. The latter two tests were performed during stanol ester …
Accuracy of a Rapid and Non-Invasive Method for the Assessment of Small Fiber Neuropathy Based on Measurement of Electrochemical Skin Conductances

Peripheral nerves (PN) consist of small and large fibers (1). The small fibers represent 80% of PN and are long, thin, with little or no myelin. They are, therefore, more fragile and the first to be damaged in many pathological processes (2–5). The current clinical diagnostic methods mainly assess large fibers (6). Similarly the gold standard neurophysiological tool, namely nerve conduction studies or NCS, is also limited to measuring large fiber function. These recommended methodologies, therefore, only examine 20% of PN, those that are largest and degenerate late or not at all in certain diseases. Small fibers can be sensory or autonomic and there are several methods to assess small fiber function or structure (7). Laser-evoked potentials assess A-delta fiber function (sensory nerves) but these instruments are not widely available (8). Quantitative sensory testing (QST) measures sensitivity to cold, heat, and vibration (sensory small and large fibers) and is more widely available but time-consuming and subjective for routine clinical practice (9). Skin biopsies can assess small fiber structure but are relatively invasive (3 mm in diameter, 1 month for full healing) and, thus, are ill suited for longitudinal assessments (10). Sudomotor function assessing small fibers of the sympathetic autonomic system can be evaluated by the quantitative sudomotor axon reflex test (QSART); though considered the reference method, QSART remains mostly limited to research centers due to the technical complexity and relative discomfort of the examination (11). Other sudomotor methodologies include the Neuropad, which is semi-quantitative and not highly sensitive (12), quantitative direct and indirect testing (QDIRT) and the dynamic sweat test (DST). QDIRT and DST both induce sweating with iontophoresis of acetylcholine or pilocarpine; they are relatively tedious and not particularly suited to the outpatient clinic and there are no data validating the diagnostic utility of these newer technologies (13, 14). Specific stains can be used to evaluate sweat gland nerve fiber density (SGNFD), but there is currently no standardized methodology or normative reference ranges for SGNFD (15). The SUDOSCAN® device was developed to allow the quantitative measurement of sweat gland function using a simple and rapid process (16, 17). Results are immediately available and expressed as electrochemical skin conductances (ESCs). This technique has been compared to reference neurological tests, is not operator dependent, and could be used in the follow-up of patients and in multi-center studies (18–21). The aim of this study was to assess repeatability and reproducibility of the method in healthy volunteers (HV) and diabetic patients with a range of glycemic control.
Evolutionary synthesis models of starbursts IV. Soft X-ray emission

In this work we investigate the evolution of the X-ray emission of a cluster of single young massive stars with different metallicities. We have considered the X-ray contribution originated by the diffuse gas heated by the mechanical energy released by stellar winds and SN explosions as well as the X-ray contribution from SN remnants. The resulting ionizing spectrum (i.e. lambda < 912 A) has been used to compute the expected intensity of the nebular He II 4686 A. The observational ratio He II/Hbeta could be reproduced by the models assuming that a fraction of the mechanical energy produced by the star-formation episode is reprocessed by interaction with the ISM as soft X-ray radiation, contributing to the He ionization. However, the discreteness of the stellar populations affects the ionizing flux and may be responsible for the observed dispersion of the ratio. We have finally used the synthesis models to estimate the contribution of circumnuclear star-forming regions to the multiwavelength energy distribution in Active Galactic Nuclei, finding that the UV to soft X-ray continuum in many Seyfert 2 galaxies seems to be dominated by star-formation processes.
Next-generation sequencing identifies novel mutations in the FBN1 gene for two Chinese families with Marfan syndrome

Marfan syndrome (MFS) is an autosomal dominant heterogeneous disorder of connective tissue characterized by the early development of thoracic aneurysms/dissections, together with defects of the ocular and skeletal systems. Loss-of-function mutations in fibrillin-1 (FBN1) encoded by the gene, FBN1 (MFS-1), and in the transforming growth factor β receptor 2 (TGFBR2) gene, TGFBR2 (MFS-2), are major causes of this disorder. In the present study, a rapid and cost-effective method for genetically diagnosing MFS was described and used to identify disease-causing mutations in two unrelated pedigrees with MFS in mainland China. Using targeted semiconductor sequencing, two pathogenic mutations in four MFS patients of the two pedigrees were identified, including a novel frameshift insertion, p.G2120fsX2160, and a reported nonsense mutation, p.Arg529X (rs 137854476), in the FBN1 gene. In addition, a rare, probably benign Chinese-specific polymorphism in the FBN1 gene was also revealed.
Make-Before-Break MAC Layer Handoff in 802.11 Wireless Networks

To support real-time applications such as Voice-over-IP within an 802.11 Wireless LAN, efficient handoff mechanisms are required when a mobile client moves from one Access Point to another. In this paper, we present the design, implementation and performance results of MAC layer (layer-2) handoff algorithms which implement make-before-break mechanisms at the MAC layer unlike current algorithms that are based on break-before-make. As a baseline, we first present an algorithm that uses a single radio card on the client (as is done traditionally), but optimizes MAC layer handoff by periodically probing in the background for Access Points on other channels even when it is already associated with an Access Point and actively sending and receiving data. We then present two novel algorithms that use two radio cards on the client so that when one card is involved in communicating data, the other card can probe for neighboring Access Points. Of these multiple radio algorithms, the first one uses dedicated data and control cards at the client thereby implementing a soft version of make-before-break. The second algorithm uses two cards which can both perform control and data forwarding functions thereby implementing a strict version of make-before-break. Experimental results from a prototype implementation show that the make-before-brake algorithms lead to a significant reduction in MAC layer handoff overhead; the algorithm for the strict version of the make-before-break mechanism leads to sub 10 millisecond hand-off latency.
Combinatorial description of the homotopy groups of wedge of spheres

In this paper, we give a combinatorial description of the homotopy groups of a wedge of spheres. This result generalizes that of J. Wu on the homotopy groups of a wedge of 2-spheres. In particular, the higher homotopy groups of spheres are given as the centers of certain combinatorially described groups with special generators and relations.