Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Purification and Antibacterial Activity of Marine Actinomycetes against Human and Fish Pathogens

Many actinomycetes strains were isolated from soil samples of Thiruvananthapuram District, Kerala. The isolated strains were identified based on their morphological, cultural and biochemical characteristics. Totally thirty actinomycetes species were isolated and used for antibacterial activity. Out of thirty actinomycetes species, Streptomyces spp. , showed the best level of antibacterial activity against human and fish pathogens. The bioactive compound protein was partially purified and tested for antibacterial activity. The partially purified bioactive compound was subjected for SDS-PAGE for protein profiling and band was obtained. The partially purified protein was allowed for High Performance Liquid Chromatography analysis and was tested for antibacterial activity against human and fish pathogens. The purified protein again subjected to SDS-PAGE analysis.
Asymmetric postural tremor preceding DOPA-responsive Parkinsonism - the transition disease.

BACKGROUND Tremulous Parkinson's disease (PD) and essential tremor are well known to be associated, but characteristics of progression of pure tremor state to PD remain unclear. OBJECTIVE In this prospective study a cohort of 16 patients suffering from a suggested new disease entity was clinically, pharmacologically, and sonographically analyzed to evaluate whether characteristics giving rise to a new entity in this field can be detected. METHODS All patients had a history of asymmetric postural tremor (aPT) who either already had developed surplus Parkinsonism (PARK group), or were still in the state of a pure asymmetric postural tremor syndrome (APT group). Asymmetry of aPT was assessed by tremor scores including an asymmetry index. DOPA-responsivity was analyzed by tremor scores and the score of the motor part of the Unified Parkinson's disease rating scale. Transcranial brain sonography was performed to evaluate echogenicity of the substantia nigra. RESULTS Mean age at onset of asymmetric postural tremor was 57 ± 8.5 years without significant differences between both groups. Family history was compatible with an autosomal-dominant inheritance pattern in the majority of patients of both the APT and PARK group. All patients in the PARK group and 3 out of 8 patients in the APT group (38%) with respect to their asymmetric postural tremor were DOPA-responsive. All patients of both groups eligible to transcranial brain sonography showed hyperechogenicity of substantia nigra. In both groups, there was no correlation between tremor severity and duration of asymmetric postural tremor. CONCLUSIONS Our data indicate that patients with an initial asymmetric and sometimes DOPA-responsive postural tremor syndrome and PARK patients are at various stages within the transition from aPT to a later developed DOPA-responsive Parkinsonian syndrome. It is postulated that the described group of patients may represent a separate disease entity with a hereditary background.
Nationwide Case-Control Study Examining the Association between Tamoxifen Use and Alzheimer’s Disease in Aged Women with Breast Cancer in Taiwan

Background and Objectives: Little is known about the association between tamoxifen use and Alzheimer’s disease in women with breast cancer. The study aimed to explore the association between tamoxifen use and Alzheimer’s disease in aged women with breast cancer in Taiwan. Methods: We conducted a retrospective nationwide case-control study using the database of the Taiwan National Health Insurance Program. Totally, 173 female subjects with breast cancer aged ≥ 65 years with newly diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease from 2000 to 2011 were identified as the cases. Additionally, 684 female subjects with breast cancer aged ≥ 65 years without any type of dementia were selected as the matched controls. The cases and the matched controls were matched with age and comorbidities. Ever use of tamoxifen was defined as subjects who had at least a prescription for tamoxifen before the index date. Never use of tamoxifen was defined as subjects who never had a prescription for tamoxifen before the index date. We used the logistic regression model to calculate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of Alzheimer’s disease associated with tamoxifen use. Results: The OR of Alzheimer’s disease was 3.09 for subjects with ever use of tamoxifen (95% CI 2.10, 4.55), compared with never use. The OR of Alzheimer’s disease was 1.23 for subjects with increasing cumulative duration of tamoxifen use for every 1 year (95% CI 1.13, 1.34), compared with never use. Conclusion: The increased odds of Alzheimer’s disease associated with tamoxifen use may be due to the survival effect, not the toxic effect. That is, the longer the tamoxifen use, the longer the patients survive, and the greater the likelihood that she may have a chance to develop Alzheimer’s disease.
Sport fan aggression and anonymity: The importance of team identification

The current study tested the hypothesis that there would be a positive relationship between sport team identification and willingness to injure anonymously an opposing player or coach. To test this hypothesis, 88 college students were asked to indicate their willingness to murder someone anonymously and their willingness to injure anonymously the star player and coach of a rival team. The data confirmed the hypothesis, even after controlling for level of sport fandom. However, because the data failed to reveal a significant relationship between team identification and desire to murder someone anonymously, it is apparent that the highly identified fans were not simply more aggressive in general. Rather, they were more aggressive only when the target was a player or coach of a rival team. Discussion centers on the instrumental nature of the current form of fan aggression.
An Effective Web Service Recommendation Method Based on Personalized Collaborative Filtering

Collaborative filtering is one of widely used Web service recommendation techniques. There have been several methods of Web service selection and recommendation based on collaborative filtering, but seldom have they considered personalized influence of users and services. In this paper, we present an effective personalized collaborative filtering method for Web service recommendation. A key component of Web service recommendation techniques is computation of similarity measurement of Web services. Different from the Pearson Correlation Coefficient (PCC) similarity measurement, we take into account the personalized influence of services when computing similarity measurement between users and personalized influence of services. Based on the similarity measurement model of Web services, we develop an effective Personalized Hybrid Collaborative Filtering (PHCF) technique by integrating personalized user-based algorithm and personalized item-based algorithm. We conduct series of experiments based on real Web service QoS dataset WSRec [11] which contains more than 1.5 millions test results of 150 service users in different countries on 100 publicly available Web services located all over the world. Experimental results show that the method improves accuracy of recommendation of Web services significantly.
Neural correlates of decision making after unfair treatment

Empirical evidence indicates that people are inequity averse. However, it is unclear whether and how suffering unfairness impacts subsequent behavior. We investigated the consequences of unfair treatment in subsequent interactions with new interaction partners and the associated neural mechanisms. Participants were experimentally manipulated to experience fair or unfair treatment in the ultimatum game (UG), and subsequently, they were given the opportunity to retaliate in the dictator game (DG) in their interactions with players who had not played a role in the previous fair or unfair treatment. The results showed that participants dictated less money to unrelated partners after frequently receiving unfair offers in the previous UG (vs. frequently receiving fair offers in the previous UG), but only when they were first exposed to unfair UG/DG. Stronger activation in the right dorsal anterior insula was found during receiving unfair offers and during the subsequent offer-considering phase. The regional homogeneity (ReHo), a measure of the local synchronization of neighboring voxels in resting-state brain activity, in the left ventral anterior insula and left superior temporal pole was positively correlated with the behavior change. These findings suggest that unfair treatment may encourage a spread of unfairness, and that the anterior insula may be not only engaged in signaling social norm violations, but also recruited in guiding subsequent adaptive behaviors.
Plate tectonics on early Earth? Weighing the paleomagnetic evidence

Paleomagnetism is the only quantitative method available to test for lateral motions by tectonic plates across the surface of ancient Earth. Here, we present several analyses of such motions using strict quality criteria from the global paleomagnetic database of pre‐800 Ma rocks. Extensive surface motion of cratons can be documented confi dently to older than ca. 2775 Ma, but considering only the most reliable Archean data, we cannot discern differential motion from true polar wander (which can also generate surface motions relative to the geomagnetic reference frame). In order to fi nd evidence for differential motions between pairs of Precambrian cratons, we compared distances between paleomagnetic poles through precisely isochronous intervals for pairs of cratons. The existing database yields several such comparisons with ages ranging from ca. 1110 to ca. 2775 Ma. Only one pair of these ages, 1110‐1880 Ma, brackets signifi cantly different apparent polar wander path lengths between the same two cratons and thus demonstrates differential surface motions. If slightly less reliable paleomagnetic results are considered, however, the number of comparisons increases dramatically, and an example is illustrated for which a single additional pole could constrain differential cratonic motion into the earliest Paleoproterozoic and late Neoarchean (in the interval 2445‐2680 Ma). In a separate analysis based in part upon moderately reliable paleomagnetic poles, if a specifi c reconstruction is chosen for Laurentia and Baltica between ca. 1265 and 1750 Ma, then those cratons’ rotated apparent polar wander paths show convergence and divergence patterns that accord with regional tectonics and appear to be remarkably similar to predictions from a plate-tectonic conceptual model. Carefully targeted and executed future paleomagnetic studies of the increasingly well-dated Precambrian rock record can imminently extend these tests to ca. 2700 Ma, and with substantially more effort, to perhaps as old as ca. 3500 Ma.
Constrained Reliability Redundancy Optimization of Complex Systems using Genetic Algorithm

The paper presents a Genetic Algorithm (GA) approach for solving constrained reliability redundancy optimization of general systems. The advanced GA technique uses a dynamic adaptive penalty function to consider the infeasible solutions also and guides the search to optimal or near optimal solution. The penalty technique is applied to keep a certain amount of infeasible solutions in each generation so as to enforce genetic search towards an optimal solution from both the sides of feasible and infeasible regions. The performance of the method is compared with GA tool Box of MATLAB.
Influence of Familiarization and Competitive Level on the Reliability of Countermovement Vertical Jump Kinetic and Kinematic Variables

Abstract Nibali, ML, Tombleson, T, Brady, PH, and Wagner, P. Influence of familiarization and competitive level on the reliability of countermovement vertical jump kinetic and kinematic variables. J Strength Cond Res 29(10): 2827–2835, 2015—Understanding typical variation of vertical jump (VJ) performance and confounding sources of its typical variability (i.e., familiarization and competitive level) is pertinent in the routine monitoring of athletes. We evaluated the presence of systematic error (learning effect) and nonuniformity of error (heteroscedasticity) across VJ performances of athletes that differ in competitive level and quantified the reliability of VJ kinetic and kinematic variables relative to the smallest worthwhile change (SWC). One hundred thirteen high school athletes, 30 college athletes, and 35 professional athletes completed repeat VJ trials. Average eccentric rate of force development (RFD), average concentric (CON) force, CON impulse, and jump height measurements were obtained from vertical ground reaction force (VGRF) data. Systematic error was assessed by evaluating changes in the mean of repeat trials. Heteroscedasticity was evaluated by plotting the difference score (trial 2 − trial 1) against the mean of the trials. Variability of jump variables was calculated as the typical error (TE) and coefficient of variation (%CV). No substantial systematic error (effect size range: −0.07 to 0.11) or heteroscedasticity was present for any of the VJ variables. Vertical jump can be performed without the need for familiarization trials, and the variability can be conveyed as either the raw TE or the %CV. Assessment of VGRF variables is an effective and reliable means of assessing VJ performance. Average CON force and CON impulse are highly reliable (%CV: 2.7% ×/÷ 1.10), although jump height was the only variable to display a %CV ⩽SWC. Eccentric RFD is highly variable yet should not be discounted from VJ assessments on this factor alone because it may be sensitive to changes in response to training or fatigue that exceed the TE.
Increasing Turn Signal Use by Drivers Exiting a University Parking Garage

Abstract The present study attempted to further existing literature on increasing safe driving practices through visual prompts by targeting turn signal use at a 4-way intersection. Drivers exiting a university parking garage were presented with a visual prompt (“Please Signal and Drive Safely”) and then observed for turn signal use while entering an intersection a short time later. In addition, the effectiveness of posted signs (passive prompting) was compared to signs held by a student volunteer (mediated prompting) using a reversal (ABACA) design. The interventions increased turn signal use from a baseline of 68% to 89% and 85% for passive prompts and mediated prompts, respectively.
Gender and Violence Exposure in a Study of Rural Youth

ABSTRACT High levels of violence exposure are common in rural areas, but most attention and current research have focused on exposure to violence and the consequences of that exposure in urban settings. The current study explores the specific experiences of violence in a sample of rural youth, including exposure as a victim or witness, in three settings: home, school, and neighborhood. Behavior, attitudes, and mental health correlates to violence exposure are also considered. Gender differences within these constructs are explored and described. Intervention and treatment options at several different levels are discussed.
Multilayered Epithelium in Mucosal Biopsy Specimens From the Gastroesophageal Junction Region is a Histologic Marker of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

Barrett esophagus (BE) is defined as a columnar metaplasia of the distal esophagus that develops as a result of chronic gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). A distinctive type of multilayered epithelium (ME) that exhibits features of both squamous and columnar epithelium has been hypothesized to represent an early, or intermediate, phase in the development of BE. The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate the prevalence and specificity of ME in mucosal biopsies of the squamocolumnar junction (SCJ) from patients who had GERD, either with or without BE. During endoscopic examination of the esophagus, 2 biopsy specimens were obtained from across the SCJ from 27 patients with BE, 12 patients who had GERD without BE, and 14 controls who had no symptoms or endoscopic or histologic signs of GERD. ME was present at the SCJ in 33%, 33%, and 0% of BE, GERD, and control patients, respectively. Compared with control subjects, the prevalence of ME was significantly higher in both GERD and BE patients (P<0.05). In GERD patients without BE, ME was always detected adjacent to areas of cardia-type mucosa composed of mucous glands. ME from GERD patients and BE patients had a similar immunophenotype, showing expression of the intestinal markers MUC2 and cdx-2 in 38% and 77% of cases, respectively. The prevalence of expression of these markers in ME was significantly different from nongoblet epithelium in control patients. Our results provide further evidence that ME may represent an early, transitional form of columnar metaplasia, and that ME may be used as a histologic marker of reflux disease in mucosal biopsies from the gastroesophageal junction region.
The role of diffusion in the genesis of Hawaiian creole

The historical diffusion of lexical and grammatical features from one pidgin to another has been well documented for the Pacific region, particularly by Baker (1993) who argued that items were spread individually in the early nineteenth century via an ad hoc foreigner talk register. Noting the profound similarities between Hawai'i Creole English (HCE) and the Caribbean English Creoles (CECs) which led Bickerton (1981) to propose the language bioprogram hypothesis, Goodman (1985) suggested a stronger model of diffusion, one which involved the transmission of a structurally complex pidgin or creole from the Caribbean to Hawai'i. Holm (1986) and Dillard (1995) have endorsed Goodman's hypothesis. This study, drawing on a wealth of pidgin/creole data spanning the previous two centuries, finds little support for Goodman's proposal. Textual evidence shows that the nineteenth-century pidgin of Hawai'i lacked not only the structure of later HCE but also displayed far stronger links with neighboring Pacific pidgin Englishes than the CECs. Furthermore, the creole TMA system and for-complementation patterns are revealed to have developed late and primarily (though not entirely) within the population of native-born speakers, as predicted by the bioprogram. However, while the pace of creolization was fairly rapid in Hawai'i, HCE did not form entirely within a single generation.
The Role of Movement in Elementary Music Education: A Literature Review

This literature review will first give a historical context for the use of movement in American music classrooms and then list the body of research dealing with the use of movement in music education. Findings of studies done in music classrooms will be discussed, using the categories of positive findings of large-motor-movement use in music classrooms, inconclusive or negative findings of fine-motor-movement use in music classrooms, studies of ambiguously defined movement instruction, and movement used with other nonverbal response. Studies of the types of movements performed by children will be discussed using the categories of developmental considerations, relationships of movements to musical understanding, and movement used with other nonverbal response modes.
Self-efficacy, relationship satisfaction, and social support: the quality of life of maternal caregivers of children with type 1 diabetes

Objectives To examine maternal functioning and wellbeing as important aspects of a family’s adaptation to chronic paediatric conditions, in particular, children with diabetes. Method This cross-sectional study investigated the difference between the perceived quality of life of mothers of children with diabetes (n = 63) and mothers of children without diabetes (n = 114). The study also examined the role of self-efficacy, relationship satisfaction, number of social support providers, and satisfaction with social support in predicting quality of life. Results Mothers who had a child with diabetes had lower quality of life measured by general health, vitality, social functioning, role-emotional, and mental health than mothers that did not have a child with diabetes. Self-efficacy, relationship satisfaction, and social support were significant predictors of quality of life (mental health domain). Conclusion In order to enhance their psychological wellbeing, mothers of children with diabetes require adequate psychosocial support. Other implications for research and potential interventions are discussed.
Eradicating Domestic Violence in the African American Community

Though all cultural, religious, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic groups experience domestic violence, people of color continue to be largely ignored in domestic violence literature. African Americans sustain serious and lethal injuries as a result of domestic violence. Domestic violence poses a grave threat to the preservation of African American families and communities. In an effort to create an agenda for further discussion, this article provides a critical analysis of the current literature on domestic violence in the African American community, identifies gaps in knowledge, and discusses an action agenda to help eradicate domestic violence.
Friendship quality as a moderator between perception of interparental conflicts and maladjustment in adolescence

The aim of this study was to longitudinally examine the moderating role of friendship quality in the association between adolescent perception of interparental conflicts and maladjustment. Participants were 1294 adolescents enrolled in the Dutch CONAMORE 2001—2006 study (M age = 13.6 years). AMOS multigroup analyses were utilized. Results show that low friendship quality is a risk factor for both boys and girls, aggravating the effect of interparental conflicts on anxiety, whereas for aggression this was only the case for boys. No convincing support was found for high friendship quality's protective function against the effect of perceived interparental conflict on maladjustment. These findings show the substantial importance of not being in a low quality friendship when adolescents perceive interparental conflicts.
Teacher reflection: The use of visual tools in mathematics classrooms

Research has shown that the use of visual tools in mathematics classrooms is beneficial, but what we do not know is how South African teachers negotiate the use of visual tools (e.g. diagrams, gestures, the use of colour, et cetera) in classrooms. Research was conducted with six ‘master teachers’ to explore the use of visual tools. Master teachers in this study are expert teachers identified by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education. They are experienced teachers with the potential to mentor new teachers. Master teachers were asked to complete a questionnaire, and they were observed and recorded whilst teaching mathematics lessons. Each master teacher was observed at least three times. All the video recordings were analysed, after which each master teacher was interviewed. After each master teacher interview had been analysed, one focus group interview was conducted with learners at each school. The study was undertaken within a qualitative, interpretive paradigm. The study was framed within Schon’s theory of teacher reflection. The findings suggest that each master teacher incorporated the use of visual tools in order to make mathematical concepts easier to understand for the learners. For example, one master teacher used a stick with coloured rubber bands to teach rotation about a point; another master teacher used various colours and lines on an interactive smart board to teach number patterns and a third used hand gestures to demonstrate the direction of the gradient of a line. Interview data suggest that the incorporation of such visual tools came about as a result of teachers’ reflecting in action. These findings are important for advancing teacher and curriculum development.