Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Taxonomic and Phylogenetic Affinities of Bunopithecus sericus, a Fossil Hylobatid from the Pleistocene of China

Fossil hylobatids are rare, but are known from late Miocene and Pleistocene sites throughout East Asia. The best-known fossil hylobatid from the Pleistocene of China is a left mandibular fragment with M2-3 (AMNH 18534), recovered from a pit deposit near the village of Yanjinggou in Wanzhou District, Chongqing Province. Matthew and Granger described this specimen in 1923 as a new genus and species, Bunopithecus sericus. Establishing the age of Bunopithecus has proved difficult because the Yanjinggou collection represents a mixed fauna of different ages, but it likely comes from early or middle Pleistocene deposits. Although the Bunopithecus specimen has featured prominently in discussions of hylobatid evolution and nomenclature, its systematic status has never been satisfactorily resolved. The present study reexamines the taxonomic and phylogenetic relationships of Bunopithecus by carrying out a detailed comparative morphometric study of its lower molars in relation to a large sample of modern hylobatids. Our results show that differences in M2 and M3 discriminate extant hylobatids fairly well, at least at the generic level, and that AMNH 18534 is not attributable to Hylobates, Nomascus or Symphalangus. Support for a close relationship between Bunopithecus and Hoolock is more equivocal. In most multivariate analyses, Bunopithecus presents a unique morphological pattern that falls outside the range of variation of any hylobatid taxon, although its distance from the cluster represented by extant hoolocks is relatively small. Our results support the generic distinction of Bunopithecus, which most likely represents an extinct crown hylobatid, and one that may possibly represent the sister taxon to Hoolock.
The care transitions intervention: results of a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND Patients with complex care needs who require care across different health care settings are vulnerable to experiencing serious quality problems. A care transitions intervention designed to encourage patients and their caregivers to assert a more active role during care transitions may reduce rehospitalization rates. METHODS Randomized controlled trial. Between September 1, 2002, and August 31, 2003, patients were identified at the time of hospitalization and were randomized to receive the intervention or usual care. The setting was a large integrated delivery system located in Colorado. Subjects (N = 750) included community-dwelling adults 65 years or older admitted to the study hospital with 1 of 11 selected conditions. Intervention patients received (1) tools to promote cross-site communication, (2) encouragement to take a more active role in their care and to assert their preferences, and (3) continuity across settings and guidance from a "transition coach. " Rates of rehospitalization were measured at 30, 90, and 180 days. RESULTS Intervention patients had lower rehospitalization rates at 30 days (8.3 vs 11.9, P = .048) and at 90 days (16.7 vs 22.5, P = .04) than control subjects. Intervention patients had lower rehospitalization rates for the same condition that precipitated the index hospitalization at 90 days (5.3 vs 9.8, P = .04) and at 180 days (8.6 vs 13.9, P = .046) than controls. The mean hospital costs were lower for intervention patients ($2058) vs controls ($2546) at 180 days (log-transformed P = .049). CONCLUSION Coaching chronically ill older patients and their caregivers to ensure that their needs are met during care transitions may reduce the rates of subsequent rehospitalization.
Tangential migration and proliferation of intermediate progenitors of GABAergic neurons in the mouse telencephalon

In the embryonic neocortex, neuronal precursors are generated in the ventricular zone (VZ) and accumulate in the cortical plate. Recently, the subventricular zone (SVZ) of the embryonic neocortex was recognized as an additional neurogenic site for both principal excitatory neurons and GABAergic inhibitory neurons. To gain insight into the neurogenesis of GABAergic neurons in the SVZ, we investigated the characteristics of intermediate progenitors of GABAergic neurons (IPGNs) in mouse neocortex by immunohistochemistry, immunocytochemistry, single-cell RT-PCR and single-cell array analysis. IPGNs were identified by their expression of some neuronal and cell cycle markers. Moreover, we investigated the origins of the neocortical IPGNs by Cre-loxP fate mapping in transgenic mice and the transduction of part of the telencephalic VZ by Cre-reporter plasmids, and found them in the medial and lateral ganglionic eminence. Therefore, they must migrate tangentially within the telencephalon to reach the neocortex. Cell-lineage analysis by simple-retrovirus transduction revealed that the neocortical IPGNs self-renew and give rise to a small number of neocortical GABAergic neurons and to a large number of granule and periglomerular cells in the olfactory bulb. IPGNs are maintained in the neocortex and may act as progenitors for adult neurogenesis.
Prognosis of Component Degradation Under Uncertainty: A Method for Early Stage Design of a Complex Engineering System

This paper proposes a method that dynamically improves a statistical model of system degradation by incorporating uncertainty. The method is illustrated by a case example of fouling, or degradation, in a heat exchanger in a cogeneration desalination plant. The goal of the proposed method is to select the best model from several representative condenser fouling models including linear, falling rate, and asymptotic fouling, and to validate and improve model parameters over the duration of operation. Maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) was applied to obtain a stochastic distribution of condenser fouling. Akaike’s Information Criterion (AIC) and the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) were then computed at time intervals to assess the accuracy of the MLE results. The degradation model was further evaluated by estimating future prognoses and then cross-validating with real world fouling data. The results show the accuracy of a prognosis can be improved substantially by continuously updating fouling model parameters. The proposed method is a step toward facilitating prognosis of engineering systems in the early design stages by improving the prediction of future component degradation.Copyright © 2012 by ASME
A practical bias estimation algorithm for multisensor-multitarget tracking

Bias estimation or sensor registration is an essential step in ensuring the accuracy of global tracks in multisensor-multitarget tracking. Most previously proposed algorithms for bias estimation rely on local measurements in centralized systems or tracks in distributed systems along with additional information such as covariances, filter gains, or targets of opportunity. In addition, it is generally assumed that such data are made available to the fusion center at every sampling time. In practical distributed multisensor-tracking systems, where each platform sends local tracks to the fusion center, only state estimates and, perhaps, their covariances are sent to the fusion center at nonconsecutive sampling instants or scans. That is, not all the information required for exact bias estimation at the fusion center is available in practical distributed-tracking systems. In this paper, a new algorithm that is capable of accurately estimating the biases even in the absence of filter gain information from local platforms is proposed for distributed-tracking systems with intermittent track transmission. Through the calculation of the posterior Craḿer-Rao lower bound and various simulation results, it is shown that the performance of the new algorithm, which uses the tracklet idea and does not require track transmission at every sampling time or exchange of filter gains, can approach the performance of the exact bias estimation algorithm that requires local filter gains.
Competencias de los profesores para el uso de las TIC en la enseñanza. análisis de sus conocimientos y actitudes

El articulo analiza las competencias de los profesores para la integracion de las TIC en la practica escolar. Se estudian sus conocimientos y actitudes como variables que determinan el uso que hacen los profesores de los medios tecnologicos. Tambien se comprueba si existen diferencias en funcion del genero, el nivel educativo y los anos de experiencia. Por ultimo, se establecen las relaciones entre las variables conocimientos y actitudes con otras variables como: uso personal de las TIC, uso en el aula de las TIC, integracion de las TIC en el desarrollo curricular y obstaculos para el uso de las TIC en el centro
Air pollution involving nitrogen dioxide exposure and wheezing bronchitis in children.

BACKGROUND A population-based case-control study was performed in Stockholm to assess the influence of air pollution on the occurrence of severe wheezing bronchitis in children. METHODS The study included 197 children aged 4 months to 4 years, who were hospitalized because of breathing difficulties with wheezing, and 350 population controls. Information on potential risk factors for childhood wheezing and a residential history was obtained at home interview with parents. Outdoor nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations at home addresses and day care centres from birth on were estimated from validated models, mainly using data on traffic intensity from municipal registers. RESULTS The risk of wheezing bronchitis was related to time-weighted mean outdoor NO2 exposure in girls (P = 0.02), but not in boys. A gas stove in the home appeared to be a risk factor primarily for girls. All analyses controlled for parental asthma and maternal smoking, which were independent risk factors for wheezing bronchitis. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that exposure to combustion products containing NO2 may be of particular importance for the development of wheezing bronchitis in girls.
Ancient mitochondrial DNA provides high-resolution time scale of the peopling of the Americas

Native American population history is reexamined using a large data set of pre-Columbian mitochondrial genomes. The exact timing, route, and process of the initial peopling of the Americas remains uncertain despite much research. Archaeological evidence indicates the presence of humans as far as southern Chile by 14.6 thousand years ago (ka), shortly after the Pleistocene ice sheets blocking access from eastern Beringia began to retreat. Genetic estimates of the timing and route of entry have been constrained by the lack of suitable calibration points and low genetic diversity of Native Americans. We sequenced 92 whole mitochondrial genomes from pre-Columbian South American skeletons dating from 8.6 to 0.5 ka, allowing a detailed, temporally calibrated reconstruction of the peopling of the Americas in a Bayesian coalescent analysis. The data suggest that a small population entered the Americas via a coastal route around 16.0 ka, following previous isolation in eastern Beringia for ~2.4 to 9 thousand years after separation from eastern Siberian populations. Following a rapid movement throughout the Americas, limited gene flow in South America resulted in a marked phylogeographic structure of populations, which persisted through time. All of the ancient mitochondrial lineages detected in this study were absent from modern data sets, suggesting a high extinction rate. To investigate this further, we applied a novel principal components multiple logistic regression test to Bayesian serial coalescent simulations. The analysis supported a scenario in which European colonization caused a substantial loss of pre-Columbian lineages.
The physics of forgetting: Landauer's erasure principle and information theory

This article discusses the concept of information and its intimate relationship with physics. After an introduction of all the necessary quantum mechanical and information theoretical concepts we analyse Landauer's principle which states that the erasure of information is inevitably accompanied by the generation of heat. We employ this principle to rederive a number of results in classical and quantum information theory whose rigorous mathematical derivations are difficult. This demonstrates the usefulness of Landauer's principle and provides an introduction to the physical theory of information.
Coping Mechanism of Women as Solo Parents of Children with Autism

This study describes the coping experience of single parents of children with autism in relation to family, belief, and social factors. Sixteen single women parents of children with autism from Manila and Laguna participated in the research. The main research instruments utilized included a questionnaire, interview schedule, and observation log. Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed and integrated into a final report.
Lise Öğrencilerinin Sınav Kaygısı, Çalışma Alışkanlıkları, Başarı Güdüsü ve Akademik Performans Düzeyleri Arasındaki İlişkilerin İncelenmesi

The relationships among study habits, test anxiety, achievement, motivation, and academic success were investigated in a Turkish tenth grade high school sample consisting of 510 participants, 267 (52.4%) of whom were females and 243 (47.6%) were males. The data were collected by the Turkish version of Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI), Study Habits Inventory (SHI) and Self Evaluation Inventory (SEI). Students’ GPA was accepted as the indicator of their academic success. Small but significant correlations were found between the worry subscale of TAI scores and academic success (r = - 0.18, p 0.01), and between the Study Habits Scale scores and academic success level (r = 0.15, p< 0.01). A positive relationship between study habits scores and achievement motivation level (r=.39, p 0.01) was found. Gender, worry subscale of TAI and study habits predicted academic success in general. No correlation was observed between achievement motivation and academic success. Test anxiety and study habits were associated positively with academic success and there was no association with achivement motivation. Females were significantly higher in test anxiety scores as consistent with the literature. The results were discussed in the light of the literature.
Working memory capacity and children's achievement in arithmetic and reading

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Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitors in Maize Endosperm and Their Potential Role in Endoreduplication1

Two maize (Zea mays) cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitors, Zeama;KRP;1 and Zeama;KRP;2, were characterized and shown to be expressed in developing endosperm. Similar to the CDK inhibitors in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), the maize proteins contain a carboxy-terminal region related to the inhibitory domain of the mammalian Cip/Kip inhibitors. Zeama;KRP;1 is present in the endosperm between 7 and 21 d after pollination, a period that encompasses the onset of endoreduplication, while the Zeama;KRP;2 protein declines during this time. Nevertheless, Zeama;KRP;1 accounts for only part of the CDK inhibitory activity that peaks coincident with the endoreduplication phase of endosperm development. In vitro assays showed that Zeama;KRP;1 and Zeama;KRP;2 are able to inhibit endosperm Cdc2-related CKD activity that associates with p13Suc1. They were also shown to specifically inhibit cyclin A1;3- and cyclin D5;1-associated CDK activities, but not cyclin B1;3/CDK. Overexpression of Zeama;KRP;1 in maize embryonic calli that ectopically expressed the wheat dwarf virus RepA protein, which counteracts retinoblastoma-related protein function, led to an additional round of DNA replication without nuclear division.
Longitudinal modulation of N400 in chronic non-fluent aphasia using low-frequency rTMS: A randomised placebo controlled trial

Background: Measurements of the lexical-semantic ERP component N400 have been used to monitor neurophysiological change associated with repetitive transcranial magnetic simulation (rTMS) in persons with chronic non-fluent aphasia. Combined with reported favourable behavioural language changes, research evidence has informed the potential of rTMS to assist brain reorganisation patterns in persons with chronic language impairment. Aims: The present study aimed to provide evidence regarding the longitudinal effects of rTMS on N400, an ERP measure of lexical-semantic performance in persons with non-fluent aphasia. Further, it aimed to provide a comparison of N400 responses between the active and placebo group across semantically congruent and incongruent ERP conditions. Methods & Procedures: A total of 12 persons with aphasia were randomly assigned to receive active stimulation (n = 6) or placebo stimulation (n = 6). ERP measures from four centro-parietal electrodes were taken at baseline, 1 week, 2 months, 8 months, and 12 months post stimulation. Outcomes & Results: Significant interactions of group × time were identified for task performance between the active and placebo groups, where active performance was higher. Significant interaction effects of group × time × condition, for some electrodes across ERP measures of mean amplitude, peak amplitude, and area were found. Active group N400 responses improved (increased negativity) over 12 months, compared to the placebo group responses. Conclusions: The results demonstrated that modulation of N400 measures up to 12 months post rTMS for the active stimulation group was present. Electrophysiological changes were accompanied by improvements in anomaly detection over time. Overall, these findings highlight that low-frequency rTMS has the capacity to modulate lexical-semantic processing over time as evidenced via ERP measures.
Parents' Responses to Television Violence: The Third-Person Perception, Parental Mediation, and Support for Censorship

Extending prior research on the third-person effect, which has focused on perceived media effects on adults, the present study examined parents' beliefs about the effects of televised violence on their own and other children, and how these perceptions are related to two different behavioral responses: parental mediation of television and support for censorship. Respondents were parents of children aged 3 to 18 (N = 70), who were contacted as part of a random sample for a larger study. Via telephone interviews, parents rated their perceptions of three effects of televised violence: (1) viewing the world as a dangerous place; (2) approving of aggression; and (3) behaving aggressively. As predicted, third-person perceptions were observed for all three types of influence, but were larger for the more socially undesirable aggression - related effects. Both parental mediation and support for censorship were associated with the perceived effects of televised violence. Evidence suggested that parents' behavioral responses were motivated by concern about both their own and other children, but that the pattern of responses varied for the three different effects of viewed violence.
LA VELOCIDAD DE DENOMINACIÓN DE LETRAS. El mejor predictor temprano del desarrollo lector en español

This project was a longitudinal study, in 121 children, of the predictive value of naming speed and phonological awareness in learning to read and its alterations. Naming letters best predicted the execution of reading and correctly identified 63% of the children who subsequently showed difficulties in reading speed. Such difficulties have been considered the distinctive trait of dyslexia in Spanish. Some tasks of phonological awareness contributed to explaining reading efficiency and comprehension. Children with a double deficit, in naming speed and phonological awareness, had the worst performance in reading. The evaluation of naming speed at early stages can have important implications on diagnosis and intervention in children with difficulties in learning to read.
FtsA mutants impaired for self‐interaction bypass ZipA suggesting a model in which FtsA's self‐interaction competes with its ability to recruit downstream division proteins

Z‐ring assembly requires polymers of the tubulin homologue FtsZ to be tethered to the membrane. Although either ZipA or FtsA is sufficient to do this, both of these are required for recruitment of downstream proteins to form a functional cytokinetic ring. Gain of function mutations in ftsA, such as ftsA* (ftsA‐R286W), bypass the requirement for ZipA suggesting that this atypical, well‐conserved, actin homologue has a more critical role in Z‐ring function. FtsA forms multimers both in vitro and in vivo, but little is known about the role of FtsA polymerization. In this study we identify FtsA mutants impaired for self‐interaction. Such mutants are able to support Z‐ring assembly and are also able to bypass the requirement for ZipA. These mutants, including FtsA*, have reduced ability to self‐interact but interact normally with FtsZ and are less toxic if overexpressed. These results do not support a model in which FtsA monomers antagonize FtsZ polymers. Instead, we propose a new model in which FtsA self‐interaction competes with its ability to recruit downstream proteins. In this model FtsA self‐interaction at the Z ring is antagonized by ZipA, allowing unpolymerized FtsA to recruit downstream proteins such as FtsN.
Identities in the making: conservation, gender and race in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, Guatemala

This article examines how the daily discourses, practices, and performances of conservation projects are instrumental in mapping ways of life that are gendered and racialized. With the goal of bringing a feminist approach to the study of conservation, I present an ethnographic account of identities‐in‐the‐making in three conservation encounters in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, a protected area in northern Guatemala. In the first two encounters, I examine the ways in which gender and race are constituted in the relations between the Women’s Group for the Rescue of Itza’ Medicinal Plants and a United States‐based international environmental non‐governmental organization. The third encounter highlights the relations between the Women’s Group and myself, the researcher, to analyze how social‐science, through methods such as ethnography, is also implicated in (re)configuring social identities.
The impact of social comparisons after failure: the moderating effects of perceived control

It was proposed that the impact of upward and downward social comparisons on affect and behavior following failure is moderated by perceived control. Subjects who failed an initial test were led to believe that it was either possible or impossible to improve performance on a second test and were exposed to information indicating that others either had done better or had done worse on the first test. As predicted, those who believed that they had little control over their subsequent outcomes and who were exposed to upward comparisons reported greater depressive and hostile affect and persisted less on the second task relative to other subjects. In addition, subjects who had low perceived control showed more interest in additional comparison information when they believed that others had done worse than when they believed that others had done better. Those who believed that they had high control did not show this preference. Findings suggest that upward comparison is debilitating only when accompanied by lo.