Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Glottalization and Other Suprasegmental Features in Wanano1

This paper investigates the phonological status of the glottal stop that occurs in root morphemes in Wanano and in other Eastern Tukanoan (ET) languages spoken in the Vaupés region of Brazil and Colombia (Piratapuyo, Tukano, Desano, and Siriano). Roots in these languages are lexically marked for the suprasegmental features of nasalization and tone, features I describe, analyze, and contrast with what I propose to be a third suprasegmental feature of roots: glottalization. The glottal stops that occur regularly in a subset of roots have been alternately analyzed in the ET literature as a secondary feature of vowels, as a full consonant segment, or as an articulatory phenomenon linked to tone. I review these analyses and contrast them with a presentation of glottalization as a third, independent suprasegmental feature of roots. I argue that the suprasegmental approach is applicable to a wider range of data and therefore demonstrates clear explanatory advantages over previous analyses.
Evaluation of the Central Macula in Commotio Retinae Not Associated with Other Types of Traumatic Retinopathy

Purpose To report on the anatomical and functional changes to the macula in nine patients suffering from commotio retinae not accompanied by any other types of traumatic retinopathy. Methods Nine injured eyes with commotio retinae were evaluated soon after ocular trauma with ophthalmic examination, including Spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT). In 12 eyes of 6 patients, Humphrey visual field (HVF) and multifocal electroretinogram (mfERG) were performed. Re-examinations were periodically performed for a mean of 26 days. Data from 9 injured eyes were collected and compared to data collected from the 9 non-affected eyes of the same patients. Results SD-OCT revealed no significant differences in the foveal thickness and total macular volume between traumatized and intact eyes in all 9 patients. Only 3 out of the 9 injured eyes showed abnormal findings in SD-OCT images such as discontinuity of the inner/outer segment (IS/OS) junction or abnormal hyper-reflectivity from the IS/OS and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) lines in the macula. HVF and mfERG results did not show any functional deterioration in the injured eyes compared with intact eyes. During follow-up, the commotio retinae resolved in all 9 eyes. The changes to the outer retinal region detected in 3 patients by SD-OCT were also resolved. Conclusions Acute retinal changes in commotio retinae, not associated with other retinal pathologies, were resolved without histological and functional sequelae. In a few cases of commotio retinae, SD-OCT revealed transient abnormalities mainly observed at the IS/OS and RPE complexes.
HMGB1 Is Involved in IFN-α Production and TRAIL Expression by HIV-1-Exposed Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells: Impact of the Crosstalk with NK Cells

Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) are innate sensors of viral infections and important mediators of antiviral innate immunity through their ability to produce large amounts of IFN-α. Moreover, Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) and 9 (TLR9) ligands, such as HIV and CpG respectively, turn pDCs into TRAIL-expressing killer pDCs able to lyse HIV-infected CD4+ T cells. NK cells can regulate antiviral immunity by modulating pDC functions, and pDC production of IFN-α as well as cell–cell contact is required to promote NK cell functions. Impaired pDC-NK cell crosstalk was reported in the setting of HIV-1 infection, but the impact of HIV-1 on TRAIL expression and innate antiviral immunity during this crosstalk is unknown. Here, we report that low concentrations of CCR5-tropic HIV-1Ba-L promote the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IFN-α, TNF-α, IFN-γ and IL-12, and CCR5-interacting chemokines (MIP-1α and MIP-1β) in NK-pDCs co-cultures. At high HIV-1BaL concentrations, the addition of NK cells did not promote the release of these mediators, suggesting that once efficiently triggered by the virus, pDCs could not integrate new activating signals delivered by NK cells. However, high HIV-1BaL concentrations were required to trigger IFN-α-mediated TRAIL expression at the surface of both pDCs and NK cells during their crosstalk. Interestingly, we identified the alarmin HMGB1, released at pDC-NK cell synapse, as an essential trigger for the secretion of IFN-α and IFN-related soluble mediators during the interplay of HIV-1 exposed pDCs with NK cells. Moreover, HMGB1 was found crucial for mTRAIL translocation to the plasma membrane of both pDCs and NK cells during their crosstalk following pDC exposure to HIV-1. Data from serum analyses of circulating HMGB1, HMGB1-specific antibodies, sTRAIL and IP-10 in a cohort of 67 HIV-1+ patients argue for the in vivo relevance of these observations. Altogether, these findings identify HMGB1 as a trigger for IFN-α-mediated TRAIL expression at the surface of pDCs and NK cells, and they suggest a novel mechanism of innate control of HIV-1 infection.
Disgust sensitivity predicts the insula and pallidal response to pictures of disgusting foods

The anterior insula has been implicated in coding disgust from facial, pictorial and olfactory cues, and in the experience of this emotion. Personality research has shown considerable variation in individuals' trait propensity to experience disgust (‘disgust sensitivity’). Our study explored the neural expression of this trait, and demonstrates that individual variation in disgust sensitivity is significantly correlated with participants' ventroanterior insular response to viewing pictures of disgusting, but not appetizing or bland, foods. Similar correlations were also seen in the pallidum and orofacial regions of motor and somatosensory cortices. Our results also accord with comparative research showing an anterior to posterior gradient in the rat pallidum reflecting increased ‘liking’ of foods [Smith, K. S. and Berridge, K. C. (2005) J. Neurosci. , 25, 849–8637].
Exploring Alternative 3D FPGA Architectures: Design Methodology and CAD Tool Support

This paper introduces a software supported methodology for exploring/evaluating 3D FPGA architectures. Two new CAD tools are developed: (i) the 3DPR0 for placement and routing on 3D FPGAs and (ii) the 3DPower for power/energy estimation on such architectures. We mainly focus our exploration on the total number of layers and the amount of vertical interconnects (or vias). The efficiency of the proposed architecture is evaluated by making an exhaustive exploration for via connections under the Energy x Delay Product criterion. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our solution, considering the 20 largest MCNC benchmarks. Considering 3D architectures with 4 layers and two scenarios of fabricated via densities (30% and 70%), we achieve an average decrease in the delay, the wire length, and the energy consumption of 18%, 17%, and 31%, respectively, as compared to 2D FPGAs. We also achieved high utilization of vias links.
Identifying Architectural Problems through Prioritization of Code Smells

Architectural problems constantly affect evolving software projects. When not properly addressed, those problems can hinder the longevity of a software system. Studies have revealed that a range of architectural problems are reflected in source code through two or more code smells. However, a software project often contains thousands of code smells and many of them have no relation to architectural problems. Thus, developers may feel discouraged to identify architectural problems if they are not equiped with means to focus their attention in a reduced set of locations in their system to start with. However, state-of-the-art techniques fall short in assisting developers in the prioritization of code smells that are likely to indicate architectural problems in a program. As a consequence, developers struggle to effectively focus on (groups of) smells that are architecturally relevant, i.e., smells that contribute to a critical design problem. This work presents and evaluates a suite of criteria for prioritizing groups of code smells as indicators of architectural problems in evolving systems. These criteria are supported by a tool called JSpIRIT. We have assessed the prioritization criteria in the context of more than 23 versions of 4 systems, analyzing their effectiveness for spoting locations of architectural problems in the source code. The results provide evidence that one of the proposed criteria helped to correctly prioritize more than 80 (locations of) architectural problems, alleviating tedious manual inspections of the source code vis-a-vis with the architecture. This prioritization criteria would have helped developers to discard at least 500 code smells having no relation to architectural problems in the analyzed systems.
Government Fiscal Policies and Redistribution in Asian Countries

This paper assesses the impact of government fiscal policies on income inequality in Asia. It discusses the role and effectiveness of redistributive fiscal policies and quantifies the effects of taxation and government expenditure on income distributions. Panel estimation for 150 countries with data between 1970 and 2009 confirms international empirical findings for Asia. Tax systems tend to be progressive but government expenditures are a more effective tool for redistributing income. Moreover, the results suggest some distinctive differential distributive effect for government expenditure on social protection in Asia. Social protection spending appears to increase income inequality, whereas it reduces it in the rest of the world. Also, adversely affecting the distribution of income in Asia is government expenditure on housing. Some options for improving the effectiveness of fiscal policies in Asia are discussed.
Disc frequencies for brown dwarfs in the Upper Scorpius OB association: implications for brown dwarf formation theories

We have investigated the brown dwarf (BD) and stellar disc fractions in the Upper Scorpius (USco) OB association and compared them with several other young regions. We have compiled the most complete sample of all spectroscopically confirmed BDs in USco and have made use of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) catalogue to identify the disc candidates. We report on the discovery of 12 new BD discs in USco, with spectral types between M6 and M8.5. The WISE colours for the new discs are similar to the primordial (transition) discs earlier detected in USco. Combining with previous surveys, we find the lowest inner disc fractions (∼20-25per cent) for a wide range in stellar masses (∼0.01-4.0M ⊙ ) in the USco association. The low disc fractions for high-mass stars in USco (and the other clusters) are consistent with an evolutionary decline in inner disc frequency with age. However, BD disc fractions are higher than those for the stars in 1-3Myr clusters, but very low in the ∼5Myr old USco. Also, primordial BD discs are still visible in the ∼10Myr old TW Hydrae association, whereas the higher mass stars have all transitioned to the debris stage by this age. The disc frequencies for BDs and low-mass stars do not show any dependence on the stellar density or the BD/star number ratio in a cluster. We also find no convincing evidence that any of the well-known disc dispersal mechanisms for s tars are active in BD discs. We suggest that the large differences in the observed BD disc fractions between regions may well be due to different BD formation mechanisms and therefore different initial disc fractions/properties. We also present a WISE spectral energy distribution classification scheme, based on the K s and WISE bands of 3.4-12μm. We have determined certain thresholds in the WISE spectral slope versus spectral type diagrams to distinguish between the red population of Class I/II systems and the Class III sequence. We have found the WISE [3.4] - [12] colour to provide the best distinction between the photospheric and the disc population. Our work includes a comparison of the sensitivities of WISE and Spitzer disc surveys. We estimate that WISE can be incomplete for discs at spectral type later than M8 in distant clusters such as SOri. WISE should be able to recover the M8-M9 discs in the nearby young clusters. © 2012 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2012 RAS.
Stabilizing climate requires near‐zero emissions

Current international climate mitigation efforts aim to stabilize levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. However, human‐induced climate warming will continue for many centuries, even after atmospheric CO2 levels are stabilized. In this paper, we assess the CO2 emissions requirements for global temperature stabilization within the next several centuries, using an Earth system model of intermediate complexity. We show first that a single pulse of carbon released into the atmosphere increases globally averaged surface temperature by an amount that remains approximately constant for several centuries, even in the absence of additional emissions. We then show that to hold climate constant at a given global temperature requires near‐zero future carbon emissions. Our results suggest that future anthropogenic emissions would need to be eliminated in order to stabilize global‐mean temperatures. As a consequence, any future anthropogenic emissions will commit the climate system to warming that is essentially irreversible on centennial timescales.
Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Changes in Parkinson's Disease With and Without Psychosis.

BACKGROUND Psychosis prevalence in Parkinson's disease is estimated at 8-30%. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy measures specific metabolites as markers of cell functioning. OBJECTIVE To study N-acetyl-aspartate and glutamate levels in the caudate and putamen nuclei in subjects with Parkinson's disease with and without psychosis. METHODS We included 20 non-demented Parkinson's disease patients with psychosis and 20 Parkinson's disease patients without psychosis matched for age, sex, disease duration, and levodopa equivalent daily dose, all attended at an academic medical center. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy scans were performed in a 3T GE whole-body scanner. RESULTS Decreased glutamate levels scaled to creatine were found in the dorsal caudate (p = 0.005) and putamen (p = 0.007) of the Parkinson's disease psychosis group compared with the without psychosis group. Glutamate plus glutamine levels scaled to creatine and N-acetyl-aspartate levels scaled to creatine were also significantly reduced in the dorsal caudate of the Parkinson's disease with psychosis group (p = 0.018 and p = 0.011, respectively). No group differences were found for any of the other metabolites in the two regions of interest. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that decreased metabolite levels in specific brain areas may be implicated in the development of psychosis in Parkinson's disease.
Clinical Features and Prognosis of Resectable Primary Colorectal Signet-Ring Cell Carcinoma

Background/Aims We attempted to investigate the prognosis of signet-ring cell carcinoma (SRC) patients who underwent curative surgery by comparing them with age-, sex-, and stage-matched non-mucinous adenocarcinoma (NMAC) patients. Methods Between January 2003 and December 2011, 19 patients with primary SRC of the colorectum underwent curative surgery. Four SRC patients under the age of 40 were excluded, and the clinicopathological data of 15 patients (7 men; median age, 56 years) were reviewed and compared with the data of 75 NMAC patients matched by age, sex, and pathologic stage. Results The median follow-up duration was 30.1 months for the SRC group and 43.7 months for the NMAC group (P=0.141). Involvement of the left side of the colon (73.3% vs. 26.7%, P=0.003) and infiltrative lesions such as Borrmann types 3 and 4 (85.7% vs. 24.0%, P=0.001) were more common in the SRC group than in the NMAC group. The five-year overall survival rate was significantly lower for patients with SRC than for those with NMAC (46.0% vs. 88.7%, hazard ratio, 6.99; 95% confidence interval, 2.33-20.95, P=0.001). Conclusions Patients with even resectable primary colorectal SRC had a poorer prognosis than age-, sex-, and stage-matched colorectal NMAC patients.
The P300 component of the event-related brain potential and mental effort.

The P300 component of the ERP has been gaining importance as an index of information processing and cognitive activity and as a measure of workload. This study was conducted to test whether or not P300 reflects changes of effort accompanying a graduation of the task demand. The event-related brain potentials were elicited directly by task stimuli of a reference-task paradigm. Eleven healthy subjects had to detect omitted digits in tasks of randomly ordered digits varying in their number (categories I to V). Tasks of categories II to V were equiprobable (5% each) and embedded in a sequence of the reference tasks (I). The electroencephalogram was recorded from leads Fz, Cz, and Pz. Reaction time and rated effort confirmed a graduation of task demands from I towards V. The P300 amplitude increased from category II to V and was related linearily to the rated effort. It is proposed that an effort-contingent task evaluation on the basis of physical cues takes place.
Activity of liposomal nystatin against disseminated Aspergillus fumigatus infection in neutropenic mice

The purpose of this study was to examine the activity of liposomal nystatin against a disseminated Aspergillus fumigatus infection in neutropenic mice. Mice were made neutropenic with 5-fluorouracil and were administered the antifungal drug intravenously for 5 consecutive days beginning 24 h following infection. Liposomal nystatin, at doses as low as 2 mg/kg of body weight/day, protected neutropenic mice against Aspergillus-induced death in a statistically significant manner at the 50-day time point compared to either the no-treatment, the saline, or the empty-liposome group. This protection was approximately the same as that for free nystatin, a positive control. Histopathological results showed that liposomal nystatin cleared the lungs, spleen, pancreas, kidney, and liver of Aspergillus and that there was no organ damage at the day 5 time point, which was after only three doses of liposomal nystatin. Based on these results in mice, it is probable that liposomal nystatin will be effective against Aspergillus infection in humans.
Isolation and Characterization of Viruses Related to the SARS Coronavirus from Animals in Southern China

A novel coronavirus (SCoV) is the etiological agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). SCoV-like viruses were isolated from Himalayan palm civets found in a live-animal market in Guangdong, China. Evidence of virus infection was also detected in other animals (including a raccoon dog, Nyctereutes procyonoides) and in humans working at the same market. All the animal isolates retain a 29-nucleotide sequence that is not found in most human isolates. The detection of SCoV-like viruses in small, live wild mammals in a retail market indicates a route of interspecies transmission, although the natural reservoir is not known.
The Perceived Impact of the Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education and Training as an Academic Development intervention in an Institution of Higher Learning

Following mixed views in literature on the relevance and return on investment of formal higher education professional development initiatives, the current study sought the views of the impact of the Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education and Training (PGDHET) on the professional practice of higher education staff in one institution. Framed in the interpretive paradigm, the study adopted a case study design in which multiple sources of data were utilised. Data were collected through an open-ended questionnaire from eleven (11) purposefully selected lecturers possessing a PGDHET qualification. The data was corroborated with a data analysis of PGDHET reports. Qualitative data thus collected was analysed through the extraction and aggregation of meaning units into themes. Quantitative data was used to discern and describe impact trends of the PGDHET. It emerged from the study that the PGDHET challenged lecturers’ conceptions of teaching and learning, and expanded their repertoire of innovative teaching strategies. Furthermore, participants reported contributions to advancement of departmental best teaching practices and the status of teaching institutionally. The conclusion drawn is that the PGDHET impacts beyond the lecture room as it influences also the academic development practices, faculty and departmental practices, as well as the overall culture of the institution. This research recommends ways of further consolidating and further advancing the impact of the PGDHET. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014. v5n11p157
The Relationship of Cognitive and Executive Functioning With Achievement in Gifted Kindergarten Children

This study provides baseline data to assist researchers in conducting future studies exploring the developmental trajectories of young gifted learners on measures of cognitive ability and achievement. The study includes common neuropsychological tests associated with preliteracy and the early-reading process as well as markers for inattention and executive functioning skills. Using a sample of kindergarteners identified as gifted, the results indicated that despite intelligence quotient scores in the very superior range and high means on traditional achievement measures, great variability was observed within the sample on several benchmarking measures of cognitive, academic, neuropsychological, and executive functioning. Additionally, only an average mean score on a visual–motor processing neuropsychological measure was obtained. Four neuropsychological measures provided important loadings in canonical correlations with achievement: Oromotor Sequences, Repetition of Nonsense Words, Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration scores, and Speeded Naming. In addition to providing baseline data on these measures, the results also offer support for defining giftedness as a developmental process.
THE DANGER OF HIV INFECTION FOR GIRLFRIENDS AND WIVES

Any social scientist hopes to make a contribution, albeit small, to the improvement of the lives of people in society. In the light of the fact that, to date, no cure for HIV has been discovered, prevention remains crucial and strategies to prevent the disease are urgently sought. Studies that help uncover the social dynamics that underlie HIV transmission are valuable to the social sciences – social work in particular. The aim of this study was to explore the underlying social dynamics that make women vulnerable to HIV infection. Issues such as the reasons for engaging in (unsafe) sex and the types of relationships that these women were involved in were also investigated.
Learning as Problem Design versus Problem Solving: Making the Connection between Cognitive Neuroscience Research and Educational Practice.

ABSTRACT— How can current findings in neuroscience help educators identify particular cognitive strengths in students? In this commentary on Immordino-Yang’s research regarding Nico and Brooke, I make 3 primary assertions: (a) the cognitive science community needs to develop an accessible language and mode of communicating applicable research to educators, (b) educators need proper professional development in order to understand and relate current research findings to practice in the classroom, and (c) the specific research on Nico and Brooke clearly suggests that educators need to rethink the classroom as a place not of problem solving but rather problem design in order to further understand and use the cognitive strengths of each individual student.