Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The nested contexts of language use and literacy learning in a South African fourth grade class: understanding the dynamics of language and literacy practices

This qualitative case study examines language and literacy practices in English as a second language (L2) in a South African 4th grade classroom, and to a lesser extent in the foundation phase grades (grades R-3), where literacy was in the students’ home language, Zulu. Although I was interested in the 4th grade class as a whole, to illuminate my understandings of the students’ practices in this class, I chose six focal students. Through performance assessments in Zulu and English, I examined the focal students’ strengths and weaknesses in these languages. In addition, I tried to gain insights into their home language and literacy practices, and also establish if there were any tensions between these practices and the school language and literacy practices. Throughout the study, I was guided by sociocultural and cognitive-linguistic theories of language and literacy. I collected data from the focal students—four of which I used to present findings—the 4th grade teacher, the foundation phase teachers, the principal, and the parents/guardians of the focal students. Data collected at the school included observational notes in the 4th grade class and in grades R-2; video recordings in the 4th grade, interviews with the focal students and participating teachers, students’ writing samples, and students’ performances in reading and writing tasks. Data collected in the students’ homes included informal discussions and formal interviews with the parents/guardians. I used a constant comparative method (Straus & Corbin, 1990) to analyze the data. Findings from the classroom observations in all the grades revealed that the teachers’ instructional practices limited students’ learning of literacy. The classroom data in the 4th grade showed that although some students demomstrated potential agentive learning, there was almost no room for such learning. On the other hand, the data from the performance assessments revealed that despite the students’ differences in their performances in both Zulu and English, they all showed evidence of transfer of skills across the two languages. However, this cross-linguistic transfer of skills did not get sufficient support as evidenced by the teacher’s interviews and the limited use of bilingual strategies in the classroom. Despite the limiting context of bilingual and biliteracy learning at the school, interviews with the students’ parents/guardians and students about home language and literacy practices showed that the students’ homes provided the students with contexts and opportunities that supported development of bilingualism and biliteracy in complex and flexible ways. The implication of this study is that to be effective teachers of bilingual and biliterate students, teachers need to be equipped with academic and professional knowledge in L2 and L2 literacy pedagogy. Finally, teachers and researchers should find out about students’ home language and literacy practices and build on these in supporting language and literacy learning of these students.
Clinical and pharmacokinetic evaluation of trabectedin for the treatment of soft-tissue sarcoma

Introduction: Forty percent of patients with soft-tissue sarcoma (STS) will develop metastatic disease. Furthermore, up until 2007, doxorubicin and ifosfamide were the only drugs approved for the treatment of patients with advanced STS. In addition to the lack of available drugs on the market, there was a distinct lack of alternative options for patients who had first-line doxorubicin-based chemotherapy failure even though more than 40 different drugs have been investigated in this setting over the past three decades. In 2007, trabectedin received European approval for patients with advanced or metastatic STS who had either failed with or were unsuitable for first-line therapy with anthracyclines and ifosfamide, either sequentially or in combination. Areas covered: The article was based on a literature search performed through PubMed for papers published between January, 2000, and June, 2011, using the search terms ‘trabectedin,’ ‘ET-743’ and ‘ecteinascidin’. Expert opinion: Despite an objective response rate lower than 10%, trabectedin met the European Organisation for the Research and Treatment of Cancer criteria, in terms of non-progression rate, to be considered as an active drug in advanced STS after failure of standard first-line chemotherapy. The authors believe that further biological and clinical studies are needed in order for clinicians to be able to identify patients who are more likely to benefit from the administration of this drug.
Association studies of genetic variation in the WFS1 gene and type 2 diabetes in U.K. populations.

Mutations in the WFS1 gene cause beta-cell death, resulting in a monogenic form of diabetes known as Wolfram syndrome. The role of variation in WFS1 in type 2 diabetes susceptibility is not known. We sequenced the WFS1 gene in 29 type 2 diabetic probands and identified 12 coding variants. We used 152 parent-offspring trios to look for familial association; the R allele at residue 456 (P = 0.04) and the H allele at residue 611 (P = 0.05) as well as the R456-H611 haplotype (P = 0.032) were overtransmitted to affected offspring from heterozygous parents. In a further cohort of 327 type 2 diabetic subjects and 357 normoglycemic control subjects, the H611 allele and the R456-H611 haplotype were present in more type 2 diabetic subjects than control subjects (one-tailed P = 0.06 and P = 0.023, respectively). In a combined analysis, the H611 allele was present in 60% of all diabetes chromosomes and 55% of all control chromosomes (odds ratio [OR] 1.24 [95% CI 1.03-1.48], P = 0.02), and the R456-H611 haplotype was significantly more frequent in type 2 diabetic subjects than in control subjects (60 vs. 54%, OR 1.29 [95% CI 1.08-1.54], P = 0.0053). Our results provide the first evidence that variation in the WFS1 gene may influence susceptibility to type 2 diabetes.
Microbial Community Stratification Linked to Utilization of Carbohydrates and Phosphorus Limitation in a Boreal Peatland at Marcell Experimental Forest, Minnesota, USA

ABSTRACT This study investigated the abundance, distribution, and composition of microbial communities at the watershed scale in a boreal peatland within the Marcell Experimental Forest (MEF), Minnesota, USA. Through a close coupling of next-generation sequencing, biogeochemistry, and advanced analytical chemistry, a biogeochemical hot spot was revealed in the mesotelm (30- to 50-cm depth) as a pronounced shift in microbial community composition in parallel with elevated peat decomposition. The relative abundance of Acidobacteria and the Syntrophobacteraceae, including known hydrocarbon-utilizing genera, was positively correlated with carbohydrate and organic acid content, showing a maximum in the mesotelm. The abundance of Archaea (primarily crenarchaeal groups 1.1c and 1.3) increased with depth, reaching up to 60% of total small-subunit (SSU) rRNA gene sequences in the deep peat below the 75-cm depth. Stable isotope geochemistry and potential rates of methane production paralleled vertical changes in methanogen community composition to indicate a predominance of acetoclastic methanogenesis mediated by the Methanosarcinales in the mesotelm, while hydrogen-utilizing methanogens predominated in the deeper catotelm. RNA-derived pyrosequence libraries corroborated DNA sequence data to indicate that the above-mentioned microbial groups are metabolically active in the mid-depth zone. Fungi showed a maximum in rRNA gene abundance above the 30-cm depth, which comprised only an average of 0.1% of total bacterial and archaeal rRNA gene abundance, indicating prokaryotic dominance. Ratios of C to P enzyme activities approached 0.5 at the acrotelm and catotelm, indicating phosphorus limitation. In contrast, P limitation pressure appeared to be relieved in the mesotelm, likely due to P solubilization by microbial production of organic acids and C-P lyases. Based on path analysis and the modeling of community spatial turnover, we hypothesize that P limitation outweighs N limitation at MEF, and microbial communities are structured by the dominant shrub, Chamaedaphne calyculata, which may act as a carbon source for major consumers in the peatland.
Compact, Fast and Robust Grids for Ray Tracing

The focus of research in acceleration structures for ray tracing recently shifted from render time to time to image, the sum of build time and render time, and also the memory footprint of acceleration structures now receives more attention. In this paper we revisit the grid acceleration structure in this setting. We present two efficient methods for representing and building a grid. The compact grid method consists of a static data structure for representing a grid with minimal memory requirements, more specifically exactly one index per grid cell and exactly one index per object reference, and an algorithm for building that data structure in linear time. The hashed grid method reduces memory requirements even further, by using perfect hashing based on row displacement compression. We show that these methods are more efficient in both time and space than traditional methods based on linked lists and dynamic arrays. We also present a more robust grid traversal algorithm. We show that, for applications where time to image or memory usage is important, such as interactive ray tracing and rendering large models, the grid acceleration structure is an attractive alternative.
Restaurant-associated outbreak of typhoid fever in Maryland: identification of carrier facilitated by measurement of serum Vi antibodies

Ten cases of typhoid fever occurred between 24 August and 1 September 1986 in the vicinity of Silver Spring, Md. Shrimp salad served in a fast-food restaurant was implicated as the source of infection. Stool cultures were obtained from 104 employees, and serum Vi antibodies were assayed in 97 of the employees. Salmonella typhi was isolated from stool cultures of an 18-year-old asymptomatic female employee, who was a food handler. A high level of Vi antibodies (79.0 micrograms/ml), measured by radioimmunoassay, was found in her serum. She had emigrated from an endemic area at the age of 14 years and had visited that endemic area 2 years previously. The causal relation between the carrier and the 10 cases of typhoid fever was confirmed by a common bacteriophage type, denoted "degraded Vi resembling O," in the S. typhi isolates. This phage type is rare in the western hemisphere but common in the endemic area from which the carrier had emigrated. The high level of Vi antibody in the asymptomatic carrier, in contrast to the lower levels in the convalescent- and postimmunization-phase sera, facilitated the identification of the source infection in this outbreak. This radioimmunoassay offers a rapid and standardized method for identifying carriers of S. typhi.
A novel Adaptive weighted Kronecker Compressive Sensing

Recently, multidimensional signal reconstruction using a low number of measurements is of great interest. Therefore, an effective sampling scheme which should acquire the most information of signal using a low number of measurements is required. In this paper, we study a novel cube-based method for sampling and reconstruction of multidimensional signals. First, inspired by the block-based compressive sensing (BCS), we divide a group of pictures (GoP) in a video sequence into cubes. By this way, we can easily store the measurement matrix and also easily can generate the sparsifying basis. The reconstruction process also can be done in parallel. Second, along with the Kronecker structure of the sampling matrix, we design a weight matrix based on the human visuality system, i.e. perceptually. We will also benefit from different weighted $\ell_1$-minimization methods for reconstruction. Furthermore, conventional methods for BCS consider an equal number of samples for all blocks. However, the sparsity order of blocks in natural images could be different and, therefore, a various number of samples could be required for their reconstruction. Motivated by this point, we will adaptively allocate the samples for each cube in a video sequence. Our aim is to show that our simple linear sampling approach can be competitive with the other state-of-the-art methods.
Role of Reactive Oxygen Species in the Progression of Type 2 Diabetes and Atherosclerosis

Type 2 diabetes is the most prevalent and serious metabolic disease all over the world, and its hallmarks are pancreatic β-cell dysfunction and insulin resistance. Under diabetic conditions, chronic hyperglycemia and subsequent augmentation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) deteriorate β-cell function and increase insulin resistance which leads to the aggravation of type 2 diabetes. In addition, chronic hyperglycemia and ROS are also involved in the development of atherosclerosis which is often observed under diabetic conditions. Taken together, it is likely that ROS play an important role in the development of type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis.
Extraction and phytochemical evaluation of litseaglutinosa bark methanolic extract.

The present investigation deals with the extraction of bark powder of Litsea glutinosa and its preliminary phytochemical screening. The bark powder was subjected to methanolic extraction and further explored for its phytochemical constituents using TLC and GC MS. Preliminary phytochemical screening reveals the presence of alkaloids, flavonoides, glycosides, phenols, tannins and saponins. The extract was further subjected to separation using TLC and fractions were evaluated using GC MS. GC MS analysis of the total methanolic extract showed the presence of Oliec acid, tricosene, erucic acid, tetra decanoic acid, pyrrolidinone, piperidine, eicosanoic acid like major phytochemicals. Alkaloid fraction was found to be rich in therapeutically potential compounds like Eicosane, Pieprizine, pyridine, thio-coumarin, tetrahydroisoquinoline. Apart from this various Androstane, Androsta-trione, pregnene like phytoestrogens were also observed in this plant, justifying its aphrodisiac and osteoprotective effect. TLC of various subfractions of alkaloids revealed that this plant is rich in variety of potential therapeutic phytochemicals, hence justifying its ethnomedical usage.
Goal Perspectives, Reasons for Being Disciplined, and Self-Reported Discipline in Physical Education Lessons

This study examined the relationship among goal orientations, perceived motivation climate, self-reported discipline, reasons for discipline, and perceived teacher’s strategies to sustain discipline in physical education lessons. Six hundred and seventy-four students responded on questionnaires assessing the aforementioned variables. Task orientation was positively associated with self-determined reasons for discipline. The perception of a task-involving climate was positively related to perceptions of teaching strategies promoting reasons for discipline determined by the students. Task-involvement and self-determined reasons for being disciplined corresponded to students’ reported discipline in the lesson. On the contrary, the perception of an ego-involving climate was linked with perceived teaching strategies promoting an external locus of causality in the lesson. The results imply that teachers who try to strengthen the task orientation of students and help them adopt more self-determined reasons for b.
The Effect of Puberty on Interaction between Vitamin D Status and Insulin Resistance in Obese Asian-Indian Children

To study the effect of puberty on the relationship between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) and parameters of insulin kinetics in obese Asian-Indian children. Material and Methods. The study population included 62 obese Asian-Indian children and adolescents in the age group of 6–17 years. Blood glucose, serum insulin, and serum 25(OH)D were measured. Total body fat was measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. Indices of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR, AUC for insulin) and sensitivity (WBISI) were calculated after oral glucose tolerance test. Result. A total of 62 subjects (35 boys; mean age = 13.0 ± 3 years; BMI = 29.3 ± 4.8 kg/sq M; 19 subjects in Tanner stage 1, 11 in stage 2, 6 in stage 3, 3 in stage 4, and 23 subjects in Tanner stage 5) were studied. All study subjects were vitamin D deficient with a mean serum 25(OH)D of 8.5 ± 4.2 ng/mL. No significant relationship was observed between serum 25(OH)D and parameters of insulin kinetics in prepubertal children. However, a significant inverse correlation was seen between serum 25(OH)D and HOMAIR (r = −0.41, P = 0.03) in postpubertal subjects. Conclusion. The relationship between vitamin D status and parameters of insulin kinetics are affected by puberty.
Circadian timing in central and peripheral tissues in a migratory songbird: dependence on annual life‐history states

Predictable seasonal change in photoperiod triggers a sequential change in the daily activity‐rest pattern, adaptive for migration in several bird species. The night‐migratory black‐headed bunting (Emberiza melanocephala) is day active under short photoperiods (8 h light: 16 h dark, short day sensitive). Under long photoperiods (16 h light:8 h dark), the buntings are initially day active (long day premigratory) but subsequently become intensely night active (long day migratory) and after few weeks again return to a day active pattern (long day refractory). However, it is unclear how the daily expression of circadian genes changes during photoperiod‐induced seasonal life‐history states (LHSs). We measured period 2 (Per2), cryptochrome 1 (Cry1), brain and muscle arnt‐like protein 1 (Bmal1), and circadian locomotor output cycles kaput (Clock) mRNA expressions in various neural and peripheral tissues of buntings in different LHSs and discovered differences of ∼2 to 6 h in the phase and 2‐ to 4‐fold in amplitude of circadian oscillations of Per2, Cry1, and Bmal1 between photoperiod‐induced LHSs. Phase relationship in mRNA oscillations was altered between oscillator components in the circadian pacemaker system (retina, pineal, hypothalamus) as well as in the peripheral (liver, muscle) tissues. These results show for the first time altered waveforms of clock gene expressions in all tissues in parallel with behavioral shifts and suggest the involvement of circadian system in photoperiod induction of seasonal LHSs in a migratory species. —Singh, D. , Trivedi, A. K. , Rani, S. , Panda, S. , Kumar, V. Circadian timing in central and peripheral tissues in a migratory songbird: dependence on annual life‐history states. FASEB J. 29, 4248‐4255 (2015). www.fasebj. org
The Consistency of Size Effect: Time Periods, Regression Methods, and Database Selection

We try to reconcile the findings of prior size effect studies by re-examining the issue with different time periods, regression methods, and database selection. We test whether the size effect varies in relation to the time period, whether extreme observations cause the size effect, by experimenting with different regression methods, and whether the survivorship bias in the COMPUSTAT database induces the size effect. It is found that the size effect is highly significant for data from the earlier time period, but its significance is noticeably reduced for the later time period. Extreme returns cannot fully account for the size effect, because the effect remains strong in the earlier time period even when the extreme observations are trimmed. Finally, we do not find any evidence indicating that the survivorship bias in the COMPUSTAT database is responsible for the size effect.
Increased excretion of immunoreactive thromboxane B2 in cerebral ischemia.

Thromboxane B2 (TXB2) is the stable metabolite of thromboxane A2 (TXA2), a potent vasoconstrictor which induces irreversible platelet aggregation. The inhibition of TXA2 by aspirin and other agents has been associated with improved outcome following cerebral ischemia in clinical and laboratory studies. To investigate the relation of TXA2 production to cerebral ischemia, we measured the urinary excretion of TXA2 metabolites in 30 patients with acute cerebral ischemia. Urinary immunoreactive TXB2 for this group of ischemic patients was elevated compared to normals, 1818 +/- 344 pg/mg Cr (mean +/- SE) vs 880 +/- 122 pg/mg Cr (p less than .05). Among various subsets of the ischemic patients, those with severe stroke (2108 +/- 536 pg/mg Cr), large vessel disease (1646 +/- 335 pg/mg Cr), and cardiogenic stroke (2712 +/- 1045 pg/mg Cr) were all significantly elevated. Of the stroke patients, only the males demonstrated this significant elevation. These elevations of urinary immunoreactive TXB2 are consistent with a role for increased platelet activation in the pathogenesis of some forms of cerebral ischemia and suggest that gender differences in arachidonate metabolism may exist for stroke patients.
Genetic Modifiers of the Drosophila Blue Cheese Gene Link Defects in Lysosomal Transport With Decreased Life Span and Altered Ubiquitinated-Protein Profiles

Defects in lysosomal trafficking pathways lead to decreased cell viability and are associated with progressive disorders in humans. Previously we have found that loss-of-function (LOF) mutations in the Drosophila gene blue cheese (bchs) lead to reduced adult life span, increased neuronal death, and widespread CNS degeneration that is associated with the formation of ubiquitinated-protein aggregates. To identify potential genes that participate in the bchs functional pathway, we conducted a genetic modifier screen based on alterations of an eye phenotype that arises from high-level overexpression of Bchs. We found that mutations in select autophagic and endocytic trafficking genes, defects in cytoskeletal and motor proteins, as well as mutations in the SUMO and ubiquitin signaling pathways behave as modifiers of the Bchs gain-of-function (GOF) eye phenotype. Individual mutant alleles that produced viable adults were further examined for bchs-like phenotypes. Mutations in several lysosomal trafficking genes resulted in significantly decreased adult life spans and several mutants showed changes in ubiquitinated protein profiles as young adults. This work represents a novel approach to examine the role that lysosomal transport and function have on adult viability. The genes characterized in this study have direct human homologs, suggesting that similar defects in lysosomal transport may play a role in human health and age-related processes.