Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neuroblast formation and patterning during early brain development in Drosophila

The Drosophila embryo provides a useful model system to study the mechanisms that lead to pattern and cell diversity in the central nervous system (CNS). The Drosophila CNS, which encompasses the brain and the ventral nerve cord, develops from a bilaterally symmetrical neuroectoderm, which gives rise to neural stem cells, called neuroblasts. The structure of the embryonic ventral nerve cord is relatively simple, consisting of a sequence of repeated segmental units (neuromeres), and the mechanisms controlling the formation and specification of the neuroblasts that form these neuromeres are quite well understood. Owing to the much higher complexity and hidden segmental organization of the brain, our understanding of its development is still rudimentary. Recent investigations on the expression and function of proneural genes, segmentation genes, dorsoventral‐patterning genes and a number of other genes have provided new insight into the principles of neuroblast formation and patterning during embryonic development of the fly brain. Comparisons with the same processes in the trunk help us to understand what makes the brain different from the ventral nerve cord. Several parallels in early brain patterning between the fly and the vertebrate systems have become evident. BioEssays 26:739–751, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Exploring Gender Wage Gaps in Sri Lanka: A Quantile Regression Approach

This paper analyses changes in gender wage gaps throughout the wage distribution in Sri Lanka using individual data from the Quarterly Labour Force Surveys (QLFS) and a quantile regression approach for the 1996-2004 period. The analysis is conducted separately for the public and private sectors. Results on unconditional wage gaps show that the mean gender wage gap hides large variation in the gap across the distribution, and that these gaps are very different in the public and private sectors. A unique feature is that unconditional wage gaps throughout the wage distribution in the public sector favour women. Quantile regression techniques are used to control for individual characteristics, and quantile regression decomposition methods are used to analyse the size and components of the gaps over the entire conditional wage distribution. Conditional wage gaps are significantly larger than unconditional wage gaps, and the female advantage in the public sector raw wage distribution gives way to a significant male advantage in the conditional wage distribution, when occupation, industry and part-time status are controlled for. Conditional wage gaps are smaller, and public sector wage gaps in the upper part of the distribution remain negative, when these choice variables are excluded from the regressors, which is consistent with the notion that females select into occupations where their characteristics are rewarded better, and is not consistent with the concept of occupational segregation. There is evidence of a sticky floor in both sectors, and little evidence to support the existence of a glass ceiling in either of the sectors.
Manipulating Word Lattices to Incorporate Human Corrections

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is not perfect and even advanced statistical models make errors that render its output difficult to understand. We are therefore interested in having Humans correct ASR output efficiently. A naive approach, in which Humans manually “edit” the ASR output, may work when the recognition is done offline, but fails in on-line scenarios when Humans cannot keep up. To address this problem, our prior work introduced an approach that combines ASR and keyword search (KWS) to allow Humans to simply type corrections for the errors they observe, while the system positioned each correction using KWS and then “stitches” in the correction. In this paper, we present an improved “stitching” algorithm that works at the lattice level (rather than on the first-best string). We show that this algorithm drastically improves the word error rate (WER) of a TED system when applied to a new corpus of CS lectures that has not been carefully prepared for ASR experiments. We also show that the system can fix annoying repeat errors from just a single correction, making it suitable for postprocessing of large amounts of data from limited corrections.
ABSENCE OF CORRELATION BETWEEN CYTOLYTIC T LYMPHOCYTES AND LETHAL MURINE GRAFT‐VERSUS-HOST DISEASE IN RESPONSE TO MINOR HISTOCOMPATIBILITY ANTIGENS

Lethally irradiated mice were transplanted with bone marrow plus spleen cells from H-2 identical donor mice. Five of the six recipient strains developed lethal GVHD, but the sixth strain did not develop any signs of GVHD. Spleen cells from all six transplanted strains were cytotoxic to recipient strain target cells in a short-term chromium release assay. The cytotoxic spleen cells were antigen-specific for recipient strain target cells, Thy-1+ and Lyt-2+-and some were also Lyt-1+. These data demonstrate for the first time that the presence of antirecipient cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) does not correlate with lethal GVHD. Although CTL may contribute to the pathogenesis of GVHD in response to minor histocompatibility antigens, they do not appear to be the primary effector mechanism.
The functional significance behind expressing two IL–8 receptor types on PMN

PMN are critical to innate immunity and are fundamental to antibacterial defense. To localize to sites of infection, PMN possess receptors that detect chemoattractant stimuli elicited at the site, such as chemokines, complement split products, or bioactive lipids. Signaling through these receptors stimulates chemotaxis toward the site of infection but also activates a number of biochemical processes, with the result that PMN kill invading bacteria. PMN possess two receptors, CXCR1 and CXCR2, for the N–terminal ELR motif–containing CXC chemokines, although only two chemokine members bind both receptors and the remainder binding only CXCR2. This peculiar pattern in receptor specificity has drawn considerable interest and investigation into whether signaling through each receptor might impart unique properties on the PMN. Indeed, at first glance, CXCR1 and CXCR2 appear to be functionally redundant; however, there are differences. Considering these proinflammatory activities of activating PMN through chemokine receptors, there has been great interest in the possibility that blocking CXCR1 and CXCR2 on PMN will provide a therapeutic benefit. The literature examining CXCR1 and CXCR2 in PMN function during human and modeled diseases will be reviewed, asking whether the functional differences can be perceived based on alterations in the role PMN play in these processes.
Intentional Worlds and Global Citizenship

We examine the influence of students' understanding of intentional worlds on antecedents, identification, and outcomes of global citizenship. The intentional worlds scale contains four dimensions (cultural grounding of psychological experience, culture as socially constructed, dynamic construction of culture, subjective experience of reality) that load on a higher-order latent construct representing a belief in intentional worlds. The belief in intentional worlds predicts antecedents (normative environment, global awareness), antecedents predict global citizenship identification, and identification with global citizens predicts prosocial outcomes (intergroup empathy, valuing diversity, social justice, environmental sustainability, intergroup helping, responsibility to act). Overall, the results show that a greater understanding of culture as fluid and dynamic leads to greater global citizenship identification.
Markov Chain Modelling Analysis of HIV/AIDS Progression: A Race-based Forecast in the United States

HIV/AIDS has reached a pandemic level across the world with more than 33 million people who are living with HIV. In the United States, more than half a million people have been victims of AIDS. This study investigates the most vulnerable racial minority population (the African Americans) in the United States and the second least affected (the Caucasians) in order to predict the trends of the epidemic. A Markov chain analysis was used to model the progression of the disease among vulnerable people, infective people and AIDS cases for the two races separately, based on the 2009 Centers of Disease Control and Prevention HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report. Based on the Markov model, our study predicts that the number of African American people living with AIDS diagnosis and HIV infection and dead due to HIV/AIDS will be 662.2, 1225.3 and 62.9 in 2015 and 794.9, 1566.5 and 79.2 in 2030, respectively. The number of Caucasian people living with AIDS diagnosis and HIV infection and dead due to HIV/AIDS will be 96.4, 160 and 6.5 in 2015 and 118.6, 206.9 and 8.3 in 2030, respectively. The numbers of deaths due to HIV/AIDS are quite stable over the years in both the races. There is an increasing trend in the number of people living with HIV infection and AIDS diagnosis in Caucasians compared with African Americans. The absolute number of Caucasians living with AIDS diagnosis and HIV infection is quite smaller compared with African Americans. The results reveal discrepancy in HIV infection, AIDS diagnosis and deaths due to HIV/AIDS among the African Americans and the Caucasians races. There is a need for interventions focusing on HIV/AIDS prevention and management, optimum resource allocation and development of antiAIDS campaigns to reduce the infection rate.
Effect of Choice Set on Valuation of Risky Prospects

Current models of decision making under risk assume access to the absolute magnitudes of gamble attributes. The two experiments presented here provide evidence that decisions under risk are based, in addition, on the context of the decision. In Experiment 1 the set of options offered as certainty equivalents was shown to determine the value of simple gambles of the form “p chance of £x”. Experiment 2 employed a novel procedure where the payment structure was such that it was optimal for participants to provide truthful certainty equivalents. Again, the context provided by the set of certainty equivalents influenced the choice of certainty equivalent.
Laboratory Studies on Granular Filters and Their Relationship to Geotextiles for Stormwater Pollutant Reduction

Applications of geotextiles within tertiary stormwater treatment systems and for stormwater infiltration can provide a substrate for biofilm formation, enabling biological treatment of contaminants. Geotextiles can serve as an efficient part of stormwater filtration within the urban water environment. The project assessed the applications of three experimental granular filters as a sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS) for the decomposition of organic pollutant loading present in stormwater. The three filter rigs were packed with alternating layers of filter media consisting of gravel, pea gravel, sand and either a single, double or no layer of geotextile membrane. A nonwoven geotextile was layered within the filter media. The hydraulic loading capacity for the three filters matched that commonly used with conventional sand filters systems. Water quality parameters were quantified by measuring suspended solids, chemical oxygen demand, dissolved oxygen, pH, nitrate-nitrogen, and phosphate concentrations. It was found that Filter Rig No. 3 (upper and lower geotextile membrane) and Filter Rig No. 2 (single geotextile membrane) had a significant statistical difference in treatment performance from Filter Rig No. 1 (no geotextile membrane).
Spiralian quartet developmental potential is regulated by specific localization elements that mediate asymmetric RNA segregation

Spiralian embryos are found in a large group of invertebrate phyla but are largely uncharacterized at a molecular level. These embryos are thought to be particularly reliant on autonomous cues for patterning, and thus represent potentially useful models for understanding asymmetric cell division. The series of asymmetric divisions that produce the micromere quartets are particularly important for patterning because they subdivide the animal-vegetal axis into tiers of cells with different developmental potentials. In the embryo of the snail Ilyanassa, the IoLR5 RNA is specifically segregated to the first quartet cells during the third cleavage. Here, we show that this RNA, and later the protein, are maintained in the 1q121 cells and their descendents throughout development. Some IoLR5-expressing cells become internalized and join the developing cerebral ganglia. Knockdown of IoLR5 protein results in loss of the larval eyes, which normally develop in association with these ganglia. Segregation of this RNA to the first quartet cells does not occur if centrosomal localization is bypassed. We show that the specific inheritance of the RNA by the first quartet cells is driven by a discrete RNA sequence in the 3′ UTR that is necessary and sufficient for localization and segregation, and that localization of another RNA to the first quartet is mediated by a similar element. These results demonstrate that micromere quartet identity, a hallmark of the ancient spiralian developmental program, is controlled in part by specific RNA localization motifs.
Fasting Blood Glucose and Serum Magnesium Levels in Patients with Hypertension

2 Abstract: This study was conducted in relation to determine the fasting blood glucose and serum magnesium levels in patients with hypertension in department of Medicine, Liaquat University Hospital Hyderabad from July 2011 to December 2011. The hypertensive patients were recruited and evaluated for their fasting blood glucose and serum magnesium levels. A total of 100 hypertensive patients was evaluated, of which, 72 were males and 28 were females. The mean ages of male and female hypertensive subjects were 47.76±7.53 and 51.83±8.62 respectively. The mean serum magnesium in overall subjects was 2.86±0.63. Hypomagnesemia was observed in 62% subjects and raised fasting blood glucose was identified in 55% of individuals. The mean fasting blood sugar level in overall subjects was 137±5.00. The mean serum magnesium levels in hypermagnesemic, normomagnesemic and hypomagnesemic hypertensive individuals were 3.15±1.53, 2.25±0.72 and 1.25±0.63 respectively. The mean blood glucose levels in hyperglycemic, normoglycemic and hypoglycemic individual were 148.00±7.00, 92.00±4.00 and 59.00±6.00 respectively. The mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels in overall population were 180.00±12 and 108±10 respectively. Majority of the patients belonged to rural population (78%). Occurrence of low serum magnesium and raised blood sugar level in patients with hypertension was observed.
Replication fork collapse at replication terminator sequences

Replication fork arrest is a source of genome re arrangements, and the recombinogenic properties of blocked forks are likely to depend on the cause of blockage. Here we study the fate of replication forks blocked at natural replication arrest sites. For this purpose, Escherichia coli replication terminator sequences Ter were placed at ectopic positions on the bacterial chromosome. The resulting strain requires recombinational repair for viability, but replication forks blocked at Ter are not broken. Linear DNA molecules are formed upon arrival of a second round of replication forks that copy the DNA strands of the first blocked forks to the end. A model that accounts for the requirement for homologous recombination for viability in spite of the lack of chromosome breakage is proposed. This work shows that natural and accidental replication arrests sites are processed differently.
LINEAR PIEZO-ACTUATOR AND ITS APPLICATIONS

The electromagnetic machine has long been used as one of the main devices to produce rotary and linear movement. Generally, electromagnetic actuators have a good frequency range and have excellent force and displacement output. But they usually are heavy and require significant electrical power. It is also difficult to obtain accurate displacements of under one micrometer without special design, measurement and compensation methods. Usually complicated closeloop control has to be used where high speed and high positional accuracy are needed. On the other hand, piezo-actuators are known for their excellent operating bandwidth and can generate large forces from a compact size. With piezo actuators it is relatively easy to get positional accuracy of under several nanometers. But the problem with piezo-actuators is that their application is limited because they have very small displacements. This paper reviews different structures that have been developed to increase the displacement of piezo-actuators.
Big Prime Field FFT on the GPU

We consider prime fields of large characteristic, typically fitting on $k$ machine words, where k is a power of 2. When the characteristic of these fields is restricted to a subclass of the generalized Fermat numbers, we show that arithmetic operations in such fields offer attractive performance, both in terms of algebraic complexity and parallelism. In particular, these operations can be vectorized, leading to efficient implementation of fast Fourier transforms on graphics processing units.
Diffusion-weighted MR imaging of rim-enhancing brain masses: is markedly decreased water diffusion specific for brain abscess?

OBJECTIVE This retrospective study investigated the specificity of restricted water diffusion for the diagnosis of brain abscess. Two of five rim-enhancing brain masses with restricted water diffusion (apparent diffusion coefficient of 0.79 [10(-3) mm(2)/sec] or less) were brain abscesses, but diagnoses in the other cases were metastatic squamous cell carcinoma (two cases) and radiation necrosis. CONCLUSION Although an important diagnostic sign, restricted water diffusion is not specific for brain abscess.
A Computational Approach for Predicting Role of Human MicroRNAs in MERS-CoV Genome

The new epidemic Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is caused by a type of human coronavirus called MERS-CoV which has global fatality rate of about 30%. We are investigating potential antiviral therapeutics against MERS-CoV by using host microRNAs (miRNAs) which may downregulate viral gene expression to quell viral replication. We computationally predicted potential 13 cellular miRNAs from 11 potential hairpin sequences of MERS-CoV genome. Our study provided an interesting hypothesis that those miRNAs, that is, hsa-miR-628-5p, hsa-miR-6804-3p, hsa-miR-4289, hsa-miR-208a-3p, hsa-miR-510-3p, hsa-miR-18a-3p, hsa-miR-329-3p, hsa-miR-548ax, hsa-miR-3934-5p, hsa-miR-4474-5p, hsa-miR-7974, hsa-miR-6865-5p, and hsa-miR-342-3p, would be antiviral therapeutics against MERS-CoV infection.
The Social Activity/Subjective Well-Being Relation

Meta-analytic techniques were used to synthesize findings on the social activity/subjective well-being relation. We chose zero-order and first order associations as our dependent variables and several different measure, sample, and study quality characteristics as our independent variables. We found that social activity is positively and significantly related to subjective well-being. Contrary to activity theory, informal activities and activities with friends were not related to subjective well-being consistently more strongly than were formal activities and activities with neighbors. In addition, the remaining measure, sample, and study quality characteristics were not adequate predictors of variation in activity/subjective well-being associations.
Changes in circulating blood volume after infusion of hydroxyethyl starch 6% in critically ill patients

Background: The cardiovascular response to a volume challenge with hydroxyethyl starch (HES) (200/0.5) 6% depends on the relation between the volume of HES 6% infused and the expansion of the blood volume in critically ill patients. However, only relatively limited data exist on the plasma expanding effect of infusion of HES 6% in critically ill patients. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the variation in the expansion of the circulating blood volume (CBV) in critically ill patients after infusion of 500 ml of colloid (HES (200/0.5) 6%) using the carbon monoxide method.
Targeting mTOR dependency in pancreatic cancer

Objective Pancreatic cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related death in the Western world. Current chemotherapy regimens have modest survival benefit. Thus, novel, effective therapies are required for treatment of this disease. Design Activating KRAS mutation almost always drives pancreatic tumour initiation, however, deregulation of other potentially druggable pathways promotes tumour progression. PTEN loss leads to acceleration of KrasG12D-driven pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) in mice and these tumours have high levels of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signalling. To test whether these KRAS PTEN pancreatic tumours show mTOR dependence, we compared response to mTOR inhibition in this model, to the response in another established model of pancreatic cancer, KRAS P53. We also assessed whether there was a subset of pancreatic cancer patients who may respond to mTOR inhibition. Results We found that tumours in KRAS PTEN mice exhibit a remarkable dependence on mTOR signalling. In these tumours, mTOR inhibition leads to proliferative arrest and even tumour regression. Further, we could measure response using clinically applicable positron emission tomography imaging. Importantly, pancreatic tumours driven by activated KRAS and mutant p53 did not respond to treatment. In human tumours, approximately 20% of cases demonstrated low PTEN expression and a gene expression signature that overlaps with murine KRAS PTEN tumours. Conclusions KRAS PTEN tumours are uniquely responsive to mTOR inhibition. Targeted anti-mTOR therapies may offer clinical benefit in subsets of human PDAC selected based on genotype, that are dependent on mTOR signalling. Thus, the genetic signatures of human tumours could be used to direct pancreatic cancer treatment in the future.
Motor Strokes: The Lesion Location Determines Motor Excitability Changes

Background and Purpose— The purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of lesion location on motor excitability and motor performance. Methods— We studied patients with pure motor strokes in 4 different brain areas: motor cortex lesions (n=7), striatocapsular lesions (n=13), lacunar lesions of the internal capsule (n=13), and paramedian pontine lesions (n=10). Motor performance tests included the 9-hole-peg test and grip strength recordings. Motor excitability was determined by transcranial magnetic stimulation. Motor thresholds, stimulus-response curves, silent periods, motor cortical inhibition, and facilitation were investigated. Results— The 4 groups were clinically similar but showed major differences in motor excitability. Only motor cortex lesions had a loss of intracortical inhibition in the affected hemisphere. In the internal capsule lesion group and the pontine lesion group, stimulus-response curves were depressed on the affected side. All of the subcortical lesions showed a prolongation of the silent period in the paretic side. Motor thresholds were predominantly elevated in the lesioned hemisphere of patients with internal capsule or pontine lesions. Motor performance was correlated with silent period duration in internal capsule lesions and with motor thresholds in internal capsule and pontine lesions. Conclusions— Motor cortex lesions exhibited deficient inhibitory properties. In contrast, subcortical lesions displayed an enhancement of inhibition. Internal capsule and pontine lesions affecting the corticospinal tract on different levels particularly impaired neuronal recruitment. Our results suggest that the lesion location determines a specific pattern of motor excitability changes.