Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evolution of hydra, a Recently Evolved Testis-Expressed Gene with Nine Alternative First Exons in Drosophila melanogaster

We describe here the Drosophila gene hydra that appears to have originated de novo in the melanogaster subgroup and subsequently evolved in both structure and expression level in Drosophila melanogaster and its sibling species. D. melanogaster hydra encodes a predicted protein of ~300 amino acids with no apparent similarity to any previously known proteins. The syntenic region flanking hydra on both sides is found in both D. ananassae and D. pseudoobscura, but hydra is found only in melanogaster subgroup species, suggesting that it originated less than ~13 million y ago. Exon 1 of hydra has undergone recurrent duplications, leading to the formation of nine tandem alternative exon 1s in D. melanogaster. Seven of these alternative exons are flanked on their 3′ side by the transposon DINE-1 (Drosophila interspersed element-1). We demonstrate that at least four of the nine duplicated exon 1s can function as alternative transcription start sites. The entire hydra locus has also duplicated in D. simulans and D. sechellia. D. melanogaster hydra is expressed most intensely in the proximal testis, suggesting a role in late-stage spermatogenesis. The coding region of hydra has a relatively high Ka/Ks ratio between species, but the ratio is less than 1 in all comparisons, suggesting that hydra is subject to functional constraint. Analysis of sequence polymorphism and divergence of hydra shows that it has evolved under positive selection in the lineage leading to D. melanogaster. The dramatic structural changes surrounding the first exons do not affect the tissue specificity of gene expression: hydra is expressed predominantly in the testes in D. melanogaster, D. simulans, and D. yakuba. However, we have found that expression level changed dramatically (~ >20-fold) between D. melanogaster and D. simulans. While hydra initially evolved in the absence of nearby transposable element insertions, we suggest that the subsequent accumulation of repetitive sequences in the hydra region may have contributed to structural and expression-level evolution by inducing rearrangements and causing local heterochromatinization. Our analysis further shows that recurrent evolution of both gene structure and expression level may be characteristics of newly evolved genes. We also suggest that late-stage spermatogenesis is the functional target for newly evolved and rapidly evolving male-specific genes.
Congress in Black and White: Race and Representation in Washington and at Home

1. African-American legislators, African-American districts, or democrats? 2. A unified theory of African-American representation in Congress 3. The 'hollow hope' of civil rights change in the US House 4. Location, location, location: delivering constituency service to African Americans 5. Constituency service in the district: connecting black legislators, black staff, and black voters 6. Bringing home the bacon: delivering federal 'pork' to African Americans 7. The future of racial redistricting: black decisive districts.
The UZC-SSRS2 Group Catalog

We apply a friends-of-friends algorithm to the combined Updated Zwicky Catalog and Southern Sky Redshift Survey to construct a catalog of 1168 groups of galaxies; 411 of these groups have five or more members within the redshift survey. The group catalog covers 4.69 sr, and all groups exceed the number density contrast threshold, δρ/ρ = 80. We demonstrate that the groups catalog is homogeneous across the two underlying redshift surveys; the catalog of groups and their members thus provides a basis for other statistical studies of the large-scale distribution of groups and their physical properties. The median physical properties of the groups are similar to those for groups derived from independent surveys, including the ESO Key Programme and the Las Campanas Redshift Survey. We include tables of groups and their members.
Information technology — Software process assessment — Part 2 : A reference model for processes and process capability

Part 2: A reference model for processes and process capability Technologies de l'information — Évaluation des procédés du logiciel — Partie 2: Un modèle de référence pour les procédés et l'aptitude de procédé All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm , without permission in writing from the publisher.
Futile Care; Concept Analysis Based on a Hybrid Model

Background: Making decision about what kind of caring is entitled as futile care requires the presentation of a clear definition of such caretaking. Objective: To report an analysis of the concept of futile care. Design: The analysis in this research was carried out through hybrid model in three stages. At the theoretical stage: a review of the available literature. At the work-in-field stage: semi-structured interviews. Setting: Data collection was on cancer unit and palliative care unit. Participants: A total of 7 participants were recruited in the study. The inclusion criteria were: having at least a bachelor’s degree in nursing, having at least 5 years of experience in critical care or cancer units, and being willing to participate in the study. Results: Three themes emerged: “low quality of life”, “lack physiologic return to life” and “performing non-professional duties”. Conclusion: Futile care consists giving clinical cares irrelevant to a nurse’s job and giving cares through which the return of patient would be impossible both physiologically and qualitatively.
MOTIVATING INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS AT WORK : A SOCIAL IDENTITY PERSPECTIVE ON LEADERSHIP AND GROUP PERFORMANCE

We argue that additional understanding of work motivation can be gained by incorporating current insights concerning self-categorization and social identity processes and by examining the way in which these processes influence the motivation and behavior of individuals and groups at work. This theoretical perspective that focuses on the conditions determining different self-definitions allows us to show how individual and group processes interact to determine work motivation. To illustrate the added value of this approach, we develop some specific propositions concerning motivational processes underpinning leadership and group performance.
Developing Automaticity in Multiplication Facts: Integrating Strategy Instruction with Timed Practice Drills

Automaticity in math facts has been of considerable interest to special educators for decades. A review of the intervention literature suggests at least two common approaches to developing automaticity in facts. One is grounded in the use of strategies for teaching facts, the other emphasizes the use of timed practice drills. Recent research indicates that students might benefit from an integration of these two approaches. This experimental study contrasted an integrated approach (i.e., strategies and timed practice drills) with timed practice drills only for teaching multiplication facts. Participants were 58 fourth-grade students with a range of academic abilities. Fifteen of the students in the study had IEPs in math. Results indicated that both approaches were effective in helping students achieve automaticity in multiplication facts. However, students in the integrated approach generally performed better on posttest and maintenance test measures that assessed the application of facts to extended facts and approximation tasks. These results have implications for teaching a range of skills and concepts that are considered important to overall mathematical competence in the elementary grades.
Explaining the performance of Spanish privatised firms: a panel data approach

Using a panel data of 70 Spanish privatised firms, we study whether the shares held in the divested firms’ capital by employees, managers and the State, the nationality of the buyer, the economic environment, as well as the firms’ size, may explain the performance of privatised firms. The results suggest that firms in which the State completely relinquishes control have more probabilities of maximizing efficiency. Besides, the entrance of foreign investors in the firms’ capital may provide firms with new know-how and access to new technologies and markets that may also improve the success of privatisations processes. Moreover, the results suggest that privatisations of SOEs per se may not be sufficient to improve their performance, since privatisations that are accompanied by liberalisation programs and competition turn out to be more successful. Finally, these results are in general terms the same both for firms privatised through direct sale and public offering.
Prognosis in moderate and severe traumatic brain injury: External validation of the IMPACT models and the role of extracranial injuries

BACKGROUND Several prognostic models to predict outcome in traumatic brain injury (TBI) have been developed, but few are externally validated. We aimed to validate the International Mission on Prognosis and Analysis of Clinical Trials in TBI (IMPACT) prognostic models in a recent unselected patient cohort and to assess the additional prognostic value of extracranial injury. METHODS The Prospective Observational COhort Neurotrauma (POCON) registry contains 508 patients with moderate or severe TBI, who were admitted in 2008 and 2009 to five trauma centers in the Netherlands. We predicted the probability of mortality and unfavorable outcome at 6 months after injury with the IMPACT prognostic models. We studied discrimination (area under the curve [AUC]) and calibration. We added the extracranial component of the Injury Severity Score (ISS) to the models and calculated the increase in AUC. RESULTS The IMPACT models had an adequate discrimination in the POCON registry, with AUCs in the external validation between 0.85 and 0.90 for mortality and between 0.82 and 0.87 for unfavorable outcome. Observed outcomes agreed well with predicted outcomes. Adding extracranial injury slightly improved predictions in the overall population (unfavorable outcome: AUC increase of 0.002, p = 0.02; mortality: AUC increase of 0.000, p = 0.37) but more clearly in patients with moderate TBI (unfavorable outcome: AUC increase of 0.008, p < 0.01, mortality: AUC increase of 0.012, p = 0.02) and patients with minor computed tomographic result abnormalities (unfavorable outcome: AUC increase of 0.013, p < 0.01; mortality: AUC increase of 0.001, p = 0.08). CONCLUSION The IMPACT models performed well in a recent series of TBI patients. We found some additional impact of extracranial injury on outcome, specifically in patients with less severe TBI or minor computed tomographic result abnormalities. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Epidemiologic/prognostic study,
Correlates of Perceptual Learning in an Oculomotor Decision Variable

In subjects trained extensively to indicate a perceptual decision with an action, neural commands that generate the action can represent the process of forming the decision. However, it is unknown whether this representation requires overtraining or reflects a more general link between perceptual and motor processing. We examined how perceptual processing is represented in motor commands in naive monkeys being trained on a demanding perceptual task, as they first establish the sensory–motor association and then learn to form more accurate perceptual judgments. The task required the monkeys to decide the direction of random-dot motion and respond with an eye movement to one of two visual targets. Using electrically evoked saccades, we examined oculomotor commands that developed during motion viewing. Throughout training, these commands tended to reflect both the subsequent binary choice of saccade target and the weighing of graded motion evidence used to arrive at that choice. Moreover, these decision-related oculomotor signals, along with the time needed to initiate the voluntary saccadic response, changed steadily as training progressed, approximately matching concomitant improvements in behavioral sensitivity to the motion stimulus. Thus, motor circuits may have general access to perceptual processing used to select between actions, even without extensive training. The results also suggest a novel candidate mechanism for some forms of perceptual learning, in which the brain learns rapidly to treat a perceptual decision as a problem of action selection and then over time to use sensory input more effectively to guide the selection process.
Clinical Cancer esearch cer Therapy : Clinical se I Study of NK 012 , a Novel SN-38 – Incorporating Micellar R oparticle , in Adult Patients with Solid Tumors

wnloade pose: We conducted a first-in-human phase I study to determine the dose-limiting toxicity (DLT), te the pharmacokinetic profile, and document any antitumor activity of NK012, a novel SN-38– orating micellar nanoparticle. erimental Design: Patients with solid tumors refractory to standard therapy, or for which no stanherapy is available, were enrolled. NK012 was administered as a 30-minute infusion every 3 weeks. arting dose was 2 mg/m as SN-38 equivalent, and an accelerated titration schedule was used. Pharinetic analysis was conducted in cycles 1 and 2. ults: Twenty-four patients were enrolled in the study. No UGT1A1*28 homozygous patients were ed. Predominant toxicity was neutropenia. Nonhematologic toxicity, especially diarrhea, was mostde 1 or 2 during study treatments. Two of nine patients had DLT during cycle 1 at the 28 mg/m evel. DLTs were mostly neutropenia or a related event. Polymer-bound SN-38 (NK012) and SN-38 ed from NK012 were slowly eliminated from the plasma, with a terminal-phase half-life of approxly 140 and 210 hours, respectively. Systemic exposure to both polymer-bound SN-38 and SN-38 sed in proportion to the dose. A refractory esophageal cancer patient and a lung carcinoid tumor t had an objective response and continued the study treatment for 5 and 12 months, respectively. clusions: NK012 was well tolerated and showed antitumor activity including partial responses and Con several occurrences of prolonged stable disease across a variety of advanced refractory cancers. Phase II studies are ongoing. Clin Cancer Res; 16(20); 5058–66. ©2010 AACR.
A comparative study of educational research in China and the United States

This article examines one major research journal from China and one from the United States. The study compares the two journals with regard to three questions: 1) Who is doing research published in the journals? 2) What are the major issues and concerns represented in the journals? 3) What research methodologies are favoured in the journals? The authors believe that understanding another country's educational research practices, through addressing these questions, can better enable domestic researchers, educators and policymakers to acknowledge the major educational concerns and issues that exist across countries. As boundaries between national borders continue to blur, this understanding can help educational researchers better interpret and present their findings with greater international relevance.
Labour-Market Attachment and Entry into Parenthood. The Experience of Immigrant Women in Sweden

This paper investigates the impact of labour-market attachment on entry into motherhood for foreign-born women in Sweden. The study uses a longitudinal, register-based data set consisting of the entire population of immigrants from ten nations and a five-percent random sample of natives. The effects of earned income are evident, with increased income levels increasing the probability of becoming a mother for all observed nationalities. The effects of various states of participation and nonparticipation in the labour force do not vary greatly between immigrants and Swedishborn. Among all subgroups, we find a higher propensity to begin childbearing among those who are established in the labour market. Contrary to popular belief welfare recipience clearly reduces the first-birth intensity for immigrants but not for natives. The similarity in patterns across widely different national groups supports the notion that various institutional factors affecting all subgroups are crucial in influencing childbearing behaviour. 1 Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany 2 Dept. of Economic History, Lund University, Sweden
Adaptive embedded systems: New composed technical solutions for feasible low-power and real-time flexible OS tasks

The paper deals with low-power adaptive scheduling of synchronous and flexible real-time OS tasks. A software reconfiguration scenario is assumed to be any run-time operation allowing the addition-removal-update of OS tasks to adapt the system to its environment under well-defined conditions. The problem is that any reconfiguration can push the system to an unfeasible behavior where temporal properties are violated or the energy consumption is possibly high and unacceptable. A task in the system can change its characteristics at any time when a reconfiguration scenario is applied, it can also be stopped or replaced by another one. The difficulty is how to find the new temporal parameters of the systems tasks after any reconfiguration. We use a DVS processor which is with a variable speed to support run-time solutions that re-obtain the system's feasibility. The challenge is how to compute the best combinations between available processor speeds for a good compromise between execution time and energy consumption. We propose a combinatorial optimization method based on integer programming and heuristics. We propose also a solution when the available speeds do not allow the feasibility of the system. Both approaches include a mechanism to adjust the deadlines of tasks to satisfy the feasibility conditions and overcome the problem of rejected tasks. This mechanism makes the scheduling more flexible and able to react in accordance with its environment.
Informed choice in genetic screening for thalassaemia during pregnancy: audit from a national confidential inquiry

Abstract Objective: National audit of informed choice in antenatal screening for thalassaemia. Design: Audit from the UK Confidential Enquiry into Counselling for Genetic Disorders. Setting: Thalassaemia module of the UK Confidential Enquiry into Counselling for Genetic Disorders. Subjects: 138 of 156 couples who had had a pregnancy affected by a major β thalassaemia from 1990 to 1994. Main outcome measures: How and when genetic risk was identified for each couple, and whether and when prenatal diagnosis was offered. Results: Risk was detected by screening before or during the first pregnancy in 49% (68/138) of couples and by diagnosis of an affected child in 28% (38/138) of couples. Prenatal diagnosis was offered in 69% (274/400) of pregnancies, ranging from 94% (122/130) for British Cypriots to 54% (80/149) for British Pakistanis and from 90% in the south east of England to 39% in the West Midlands. Uptake of prenatal diagnosis was 80% (216/274), ranging from 98% (117/120) among British Cypriots in either the first or second trimester to 73% (35/48) among British Pakistanis in the first trimester and 39% (11/28) in the second trimester. A demonstrable service failure occurred in 28% (110/400) of pregnancies, including 110 of 126 where prenatal diagnosis was not offered and 48 of 93 that ended with an affected liveborn infant. Conclusion: Although antenatal screening and counselling for haemoglobin disorders are standard practices in the United Kingdom, they are delivered inadequately and inequitably. An explicit national policy is needed, aiming to make prenatal diagnosis in the first trimester available to all couples and including ongoing national audit.
Preferences over Sets of Lotteries

The paper studies a model in which in period 1, a decision-maker chooses a set of lotteries; and in period 2, Nature chooses a lottery from the set chosen by the decision-maker and the decision-maker consumes the lottery chosen by Nature. Larger sets are interpreted as representing more ambiguous objective information about the lottery that will be consumed. The axioms imposed on preferences over sets of lotteries generalize those often imposed on preferences over single lotteries in the existing literature. A decision-maker who satisfies these axioms evaluates sets of lotteries according to a weighted average of the expected utilities of the best and the worst lottery in a set, with the weights interpreted as a measure of (comparative) attitude to objective ambiguity. ∗I am grateful to Walter Bossert and Peter Klibanoff for their remarks and suggestions regarding related literature. The paper has been presented at Northwestern University, Princeton University, the University of Minnesota, the Canadian Economic Theory Conference in 2003, the ASSA Summer Meeting in 2003, and the Economic Theory Conference Rhodes 2003. I am grateful to the workshop and conference participants, especially Eddie Dekel and Marciano Siniscalchi, for their comments. Finally, I would like to thank the editor and two referees for valuable suggestions.
Applying artificial intelligence to virtual reality: Intelligent virtual environments

Research into virtual environments on the one hand and artificial intelligence and artificial life on the other has largely been carried out by two different groups of people with different preoccupation and interests, but some convergence is now apparent between the two fields. Applications in which activity independent of the user takes place- involving crowds or other agents- are beginning to be tackled, while synthetic agents, virtual humans, and computer pets are all areas in which techniques from the two fields require strong integration. The two communities have much to learn from each other if wheels are not to be reinvented on both sides. This paper reviews the issues arising from combining artificial intelligence and artificial life techniques with those of virtual environments to produce just such intelligent virtual environments. The discussion is illustrated with examples that include environments providing knowledge to direct or assist the user rather than relying entirely on the user's knowledge and skills, those in which the user is represented by a partially autonomous avatar, those containing intelligent agents separate from the user, and many others from both sides of the area.
On the Rating of a Special Stop Loss Cover

Stop Loss reinsurance has at t racted the interest of ASTIN members for years. May I recall the paper of Borch [I] in which he demonstrates some optimality qualities of the stop loss reinsurance from the ceding company's point of view, the contribution of Kahn [2] and the paper of Pesonen [3]. I also mention the paper of Esscher [4] and Verbeek's contribution [5]Going back to the pre-ASTIN days we find a papel of Dubois [6]. The rating problems have been dealt with by several authors. Let me recall the rating formula worked out by a group of Dutch Actuaries some io years ago. This was based on the assumption that the mean and the standard deviation were known. Based on Chebycheff's inequality an approximation formula was worked out which, of course, was heavily oll the safe side. Even younger members of ASTIN are probably familiar with the studies made in the early sixties by a group of Swedish Actuaries, the results of which were presented by Bohman at the Actuarial Congress in London in x964, Part ly based oll this, Bfihlmann worked out some tables which he used for rating purposes. My present contribution to the subject may not justify the above reviews, particularly as I will deal with a very special retention situation which a practical underwriter will rightly not accept, namely a stop-loss point as low as equal to the mean value of the distribution. My excuse for this is that the formula deduced is very handy and that it is of value to the underwriter to know the stop loss risk rate also at this low level. Let us denote the aggregate annual claims amount for a certain portfolio z and its distribution function F(z) aud define