Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
THE GENETIC BASIS OF THE TRADE‐OFF BETWEEN CALLING AND WING MORPH IN MALES OF THE CRICKET GRYLLUS FIRMUS

Wing dimorphisms exist in a wide range of insects. In wing‐dimorphic species one morph is winged has functional flight muscles (LW), and is flight‐capable, whereas the other has reduced wings (SW) and cannot fly The evolution and maintenance of wing dimorphisms is believed to be due to trade‐offs between flight capability and fitness‐related traits. Although there are well‐established phenotypic trade‐offs associated with wing dimorphism in female insects, there only exist two studies that have established a genetic basis to these trade‐offs. The present study provides the first evidence for a genetically based trade‐off in male insects, specifically in the sand cricket Gryllus firmus. Because they have to expend energy to maintain the flight apparatus (especially flight muscles), LW males are predicted to call less and therefore to attract fewer females. To be of evolutionary significance, call duration wing morph, and wing muscle condition (size and functionality) should all have measurable heritabilities and all be genetically correlated. Differences between morphs in male G. firmus in the likelihood of attracting a female were tested in the laboratory using a T‐maze where females chose between a LW male and a SW male. Call duration for each male was recorded on the sixth day of adult life. A significant difference in call duration was found between SW and LW males (SW = 0.86 ± 0.01, LW = 0.64 ± 0.01 h). SW males attracted significantly more females than did LW males (63% vs. to 37%). All the traits involved in the trade‐off had significant heritabilities (call = 0 75 ± 0 33; wing morph = 0.22 ± 007; muscle weight = 0.38 ± 0.09) and genetic correlations (call and wing morph = ‐0.46 ± 0.20 for SW, ‐0.68 ± 0.16 for LW; LW call and muscle weight = ‐0.80 ± 0.14). These results provide the first documented evidence that trade‐offs between a dimorphic trait and a fitness‐related character in males has a genetic basis and hence can be of evolutionary significance.
Positive Parenting and Positive Development in Children

States Parties agree that the education of the child shall be directed to: (a) The development of the child’s personality, talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential; . (c) The development of respect for the child’s parents, his or her own cultural identity, language and values, for the national values of the country in which the child is living, the country from which he or she may originate, and for civilizations different from his or her own.
Glucagon-like peptide-2 protects impaired intestinal mucosal barriers in obstructive jaundice rats.

AIM To observe the protective effect of glucagon-like peptide-2 (GLP-2) on the intestinal barrier of rats with obstructive jaundice and determine the possible mechanisms of action involved in the protective effect. METHODS Thirty-six Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into a sham operation group, an obstructive jaundice group, and a GLP-2 group; each group consisted of 12 rats. The GLP-2 group was treated with GLP-2 after the day of surgery, whereas the other two groups were treated with the same concentration of normal saline. Alanine aminotransferase (ALT), total bilirubin, and endotoxin levels were recorded at 1, 3, 7, 10 and 14 d. Furthermore, on the 14(th) day, body weight, the wet weight of the small intestine, pathological changes of the small intestine and the immunoglobulin A (IgA) expressed by plasma cells located in the small intestinal lamina propria were recorded for each group. RESULTS In the rat model, jaundice was obvious, and the rats' activity decreased 4-6 d post bile duct ligation. Compared with the sham operation group, the obstructive jaundice group displayed increased yellow staining of abdominal visceral serosa, decreased small intestine wet weight, thinning of the intestinal muscle layer and villi, villous atrophy, uneven height, fusion, partial villous epithelial cell shedding, substantial inflammatory cell infiltration and significantly reduced IgA expression. However, no significant gross changes were noted between the GLP-2 and sham groups. With time, the levels of ALT, endotoxin and bilirubin in the GLP-2 group were significantly increased compared with the sham group (P < 0.01). The increasing levels of the aforementioned markers were more significant in the obstructive jaundice group than in the GLP-2 group (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION GLP-2 reduces intestinal mucosal injuries in obstructive jaundice rats, which might be attributed to increased intestinal IgA and reduced bilirubin and endotoxin.
An experimental investigation of the use of explanations provided by knowledge-based systems

Ever since MYCIN introduced the idea of computer-based explanations to the artificial intelligence community, it has come to be taken for granted that all knowledge-based systems (KBS) need to provide explanations. The first part of this dissertation proposes a cognitive learning theory based model that both clarifies the reasons as to why KBS need to provide explanations and serves as the basis for conceptualizing the provision of KBS explanations. Using the concepts of the feedforward and feedback operators of cognitive learning it develops strategies for providing KBS explanations and uses them to classify the various types of explanations found in current KBS applications. The roles of feedforward and feedback explanations within the context of the theory of cognitive skill acquisition and a model of expert judgment are also analyzed. These, together with past studies of KBS explanations, suggest that user expertise, the types of explanations provided, and the level of user agreement are significant factors that influence the explanation seeking behavior of users. The dissertation also explores the effects of the use of KBS explanations in judgmental decision making situations supported by a KBS. It identifies and considers four distinct categories of potential effects of the use of explanations--learning effects, perceived effects, behavioral effects, and effects on judgmental decision making. The second part of the dissertation empirically evaluates the explanation provision strategies in a laboratory experiment in which 80 novice and expert subjects used a KBS for financial analysis to make judgments under conditions of uncertainty. The experiment was designed specifically to investigate the following fundamental research questions: (1) To what extent are the various kinds of explanations used? (2) How does user expertise, the feedforward and feedback provision of explanations, and the level of user agreement influence the amount and the types of explanations that are used? and (3) Does the use of explanations affect the accuracy of judgmental decision-making and user perceptions of usefulness? Some of the major results relating to the determinants of the use of KBS explanations include: (1) user expertise is not a determinant of the proportion of explanations used but influences the types of explanations that are used, (2) explanation provision strategy is a critical determinant of the use of KBS explanations with feedback explanations being used significantly more than feedforward explanations, and (3) the three types of explanations are used in different proportions with the Why and How explanations being used significantly more that the Strategic explanations. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Do some schools narrow the gap? Differential school effectiveness revisited

Relatively little research has explored whether schools differ in their effectiveness for different group of pupils (e.g. by ethnicity, poverty or gender), for different curriculum subjects (e.g. English, maths or science) or over time (different cohorts). This paper uses multilevel modelling to analyse the national test results at age 7 and age 11 of over 6,000 pupils attending 57 mainstream primary schools over three successive years in a socially and ethnically diverse inner London borough. The pupil groups with the poorest progress were White British pupils on Free School Meals (FSM) and Black Caribbean pupils, both those entitled and those not entitled to FSM. Differences between schools in average pupil progress were large, but there was no evidence of differential school effectiveness in relation to FSM, ethnicity or gender, all pupil groupings benefitted from attending the more effective schools and to a broadly similar extent. More effective schools ‘raised the bar’ but did not ‘close the gap’ suggesting that differences between schools in "quality" plays little role in equity gaps. While school residuals for different pupil groups were extremely highly correlated, school residuals were only moderately correlated across subjects (English, maths and science) and over time, with particularly poor stability for English.
Highly Coordinated Gene Regulation in Mouse Skeletal Muscle Regeneration* 210

Mammalian skeletal muscles are capable of regeneration after injury. Quiescent satellite cells are activated to reenter the cell cycle and to differentiate for repair, recapitulating features of myogenesis during embryonic development. To understand better the molecular mechanism involved in this process in vivo, we employed high density cDNA microarrays for gene expression profiling in mouse tibialis anterior muscles after a cardiotoxin injection. Among 16,267 gene elements surveyed, 3,532 elements showed at least a 2.5-fold change at one or more time points during a 14-day time course. Hierarchical cluster analysis and semiquantitative reverse transcription-PCR showed induction of genes important for cell cycle control and DNA replication during the early phase of muscle regeneration. Subsequently, genes for myogenic regulatory factors, a group of imprinted genes and genes with functions to inhibit cell cycle progression and promote myogenic differentiation, were induced when myogenic stem cells started to differentiate. Induction of a majority of these genes, including E2f1 and E2f2, was abolished in muscles lacking satellite cell activity after gamma radiation. Regeneration was severely compromised in E2f1 null mice but not affected in E2f2 null mice. This study identifies novel genes potentially important for muscle regeneration and reveals highly coordinated myogenic cell proliferation and differentiation programs in adult skeletal muscle regeneration in vivo.
Toward an Ecological Theory of Social Perception

The ecological approach to perception (J. Gibson, 1979; Shaw, Turvey, & Mace, 1982) is applied to the social domain. The general advantages of this approach are enumerated, its applicability to social perception is documented, and its specific implications for research on emotion perception, impression formation, and causal attribution are discussed. The implications of the ecological approach for our understanding of errors in social perception are also considered. Finally, the major tenets of the ecological approach are contrasted with current cognitive approaches, and a plea is made for greater attention to the role of perception in social knowing.
Stochastic Geometry Analysis of Ultra-Dense Networks: Impact of Antenna Height and Performance Limits

The concept of Ultra Dense Networks (UDN) is often seen as a key enabler of the next generation mobile networks. However, existing analysis of UDNs, including Stochastic Geometry, has not been able to fully determine the potential gains and limits of densification. In this paper we study performance of UDNs in downlink and provide new insights on the impact of antenna height and careful site selection on the network performance. We focus our investigation on the probability of coverage, average cell rate and average area spectral efficiency for networks with regular and random BS deployments. We show that under a path-loss model which considers antenna height there exists an upper limit on network performance which is dependent on the path-loss model parameters. Our analysis shows an interesting finding that even for over-densified networks a non-negligible system performance can be achieved.
Dopaminergic modulation of gap junction permeability between amacrine cells in mammalian retina

In mammalian retina, the rod bipolar cells synapse on the AII amacrine cells, which are therefore the third-order neurons in the rod-signal pathway. The AII amacrine cells are connected by gap junctions, both to each other and to fourth-order, On-center cone bipolar cells. They also receive synaptic input from the dopaminergic amacrine cells, and in this study, we investigated whether dopamine modulates the permeability of the gap junctions between AII amacrine cells in the isolated rabbit retina. The small biotinylated tracer Neurobiotin was injected into nuclear yellow-labeled AII cells under direct microscopic control. The extent of tracer coupling to neighboring AII cells, 40–60 min after Neurobiotin injection (0.5 nA for 60 sec), provided a standard measure of the permeability of the homologous gap junctions. Under control conditions, individual AII amacrine cells were coupled to 73 +/- 15 neighboring cells, and this was unaffected by changes in pH from 6.6 to 7.8. Exogenous dopamine significantly reduced the tracer coupling at concentrations as low as 10 nM (26 +/- 16 cells), with the effect increasing with dopamine concentration up to 10 microM (6 +/- 4 cells). The uncoupling effect of dopamine was both blocked by the selective D1 antagonist SCH-23390 (10 microM) and mimicked by the specific D1 agonist SKF-38393 (500 microM). Moreover, the AII amacrine cells were also uncoupled when the retina was incubated in forskolin (60 microM) and isobutylmethylxanthine (200 microM). Taken together, these results indicated that the uncoupling was mediated by a D1-like receptor that stimulates cAMP production. Although the selective D1 antagonist on its own did not increase tracer coupling, suggesting that there was little release of endogenous dopamine in the superfused photo-bleached retina, veratridine-evoked release of endogenous transmitters did uncouple the AII amacrine cells, and this effect was blocked by the specific D1 antagonist.
Parameters of Quality in Higher Education: A Theoretical Framework

The concept of “quality in education” is an immensely significant concern for academicians and academia globally, and lately this notion has also treaded the realm of Higher Education in Pakistan. It is an accepted fact that there are a number of factors responsible for assuring quality in education both internal and external to an institution. Any endeavour to either induce or monitor quality in academic setting hinges on the awareness about the factors responsible in bringing about this desired attribute. This paper presents a theoretical framework the concept of Quality in Higher Education by identifying the parameters which are central contributors towards quality of an academic institute of higher learning. The descriptive study identifies and explains these parameters, including Higher Education policies and practices, curriculum, faculty KSA, institutional design and strategy, institutional leadership, learners’ profile, resources, open-system thinking and change, and the sub factors in each parameter of this “octet of quality in education. ” The study attempted to link the recent trends in Higher Education in the local context with the global practices associated with quality assurance thereby providing a starting point for targeting quality in higher education. The presented octet paints vividly the concept of how to achieve quality and enables individuals and institutions instantaneously identify the component which is missing in their quality assurance mechanism through which attaining quality seems unattainable.
Yield of transbronchial needle aspiration in diagnosis of mediastinal lesions.

STUDY OBJECTIVES To determine the transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) yield for procedures performed by fellows in training, and the predictors of positive TBNA yield at our center. DESIGN Retrospective chart review. SETTING A tertiary teaching hospital. PATIENTS One hundred seventy patients who underwent fiberoptic bronchoscopy with TBNA of mediastinal lesions from January 1991 to July 1999. RESULTS Final diagnoses were available for 166 patients. TBNA was diagnostic in 104 patients (61%) and nondiagnostic in 66 patients (39%). Of 170 cases, 123 patients (72%) had malignancies, 30 patients (18%) had benign disease, and 13 patients (8%) were normal. Of 123 malignancies, 85 patients (69%) had a positive result by TBNA. Of 30 cases with benign disease, 11 patients (37%) had positive TBNA findings. Eight of 13 patients (62%) with a normal diagnosis had diagnostic TBNA (normal lymphoid tissue). There were statistically significant correlations between TBNA result and cell type of the lesion (p < 0.001), size of the lesion (p < 0.05), and type of malignancy (small cell carcinoma more than non-small cell carcinoma more than lymphoma, p < 0.05). We did not find any significant difference for aspiration yield between carinal and tracheal sites (p > 0.05). Logistic regression analysis indicated that the presence of malignancy is the major determinant of TBNA yield (p = 0.009). In addition, lesion size does affect yield after being adjusted for diagnosis (one-sided p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS TBNA is a minimally invasive diagnostic technique with a high yield, even in hands of less experienced operators. Malignancy, lesion size, and type of malignancy are major determinants of TBNA yield.
Motor nerve conduction study and muscle strength in newly diagnosed poems syndrome

Introduction: Mixed demyelination and axonal loss are electrophysiological features of polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy, M‐protein, and skin changes (POEMS) syndrome. It is unclear whether the demyelination and axonal loss occur concurrently. Methods: Electromyography was performed in 37 patients with newly diagnosed POEMS syndrome. Compound muscle action potential (CMAP) amplitude, distal motor latency, motor conduction velocity (MCV), and spontaneous activity were collected. Muscle strength was measured according to the Medical Research Council (MRC) scale. Results: MCV decreased in all nerves with decreased CMAP amplitude and in 93% of nerves with normal amplitude. CMAP amplitude decreased in 54% of nerves with decreased MCV and was normal in all nerves with normal MCV. MCV deceased in 95% of nerves with normal MRC. Abnormal spontaneous activity was detected in 32% of upper limb muscles. Conclusions: Demyelination may be the main manifestation in POEMS neuropathy at an early stage, and axonal loss may be secondary to demyelination as the disease progresses. Muscle Nerve 51: 19–23, 2015
Imprinted Genes and the Environment: Links to the Toxic Metals Arsenic, Cadmium and Lead

Imprinted genes defy rules of Mendelian genetics with their expression tied to the parent from whom each allele was inherited. They are known to play a role in various diseases/disorders including fetal growth disruption, lower birth weight, obesity, and cancer. There is increasing interest in understanding their influence on environmentally-induced disease. The environment can be thought of broadly as including chemicals present in air, water and soil, as well as food. According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), some of the highest ranking environmental chemicals of concern include metals/metalloids such as arsenic, cadmium, and lead. The complex relationships between toxic metal exposure, imprinted gene regulation/expression and health outcomes are understudied. Herein we examine trends in imprinted gene biology, including an assessment of the imprinted genes and their known functional roles in the cell, particularly as they relate to toxic metals exposure and disease. The data highlight that many of the imprinted genes have known associations to developmental diseases and are enriched for their role in the TP53 and AhR pathways. Assessment of the promoter regions of the imprinted genes resulted in the identification of an enrichment of binding sites for two transcription factor families, namely the zinc finger family II and PLAG transcription factors. Taken together these data contribute insight into the complex relationships between toxic metals in the environment and imprinted gene biology.
The Short-Chain Alcohol Dehydrogenase ABA2 Catalyzes the Conversion of Xanthoxin to Abscisic Aldehyde Online version contains Web-only data. Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantcell.org/cgi/doi/10.1105/tpc.002477.

Mutants able to germinate and perform early growth in medium containing a high NaCl concentration were identified during the course of two independent screenings and named salt resistant (sre) and salobreño (sañ). The sre and sañ mutants also were able to germinate in high-osmoticum medium, indicating that they are osmotolerant in a germination assay. Complementation analyses revealed that sre1-1, sre1-2, sañ3-1, and sañ3-2 were alleles of the abscisic acid (ABA) biosynthesis ABA2 gene. A map-based cloning strategy allowed the identification of the ABA2 gene and molecular characterization of four new aba2 alleles. The ABA2 gene product belongs to the family of short-chain dehydrogenases/reductases, which are known to be NAD- or NADP-dependent oxidoreductases. Recombinant ABA2 protein produced in Escherichia coli exhibits a Km value for xanthoxin of 19 μM and catalyzes in a NAD-dependent manner the conversion of xanthoxin to abscisic aldehyde, as determined by HPLC–mass spectrometry. The ABA2 mRNA is expressed constitutively in all plant organs examined and is not upregulated in response to osmotic stress. The results of this work are discussed in the context of previous genetic and biochemical evidence regarding ABA biosynthesis, confirming the xanthoxin→abscisic aldehyde→ABA transition as the last steps of the major ABA biosynthetic pathway.
Comparison of 201Tl- with 67Ga single photon emission tomography in the diagnosis of head and neck cancer recurrence

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of 201Tl single photon emission tomography (SPET) in comparison with 67Ga SPET for distinguishing recurrent tumours in patients previously treated for head and neck cancer. A total of 37 patients with suspicion of recurrent cancer were investigated. SPET images with 201Tl were acquired 10 min (early) and 3 h (delayed) and SPET images with 67Ga were acquired 72 h, after injection. The visual and semiquantitative (T/N ratio) analysis were performed. On visual analysis, results from early 201Tl SPET were the same as those from delayed 201Tl SPET. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the diagnosis of local recurrence using 201Tl SPET were all 100%. The three values using 201Tl SPET for neck lymph node metastases were 73%, 100% and 91%. The corresponding values using 67Ga SPET for local recurrence were 57%, 100% and 89%, respectively, and those using 67Ga SPET for neck lymph node metastases 55%, 100% and 84%, respectively. In the semiquantitative analysis, there was a statistically higher T/N ratio obtained using 201Tl when compared with 67Ga. 201Tl early SPET, especially, has the potential to replace 67Ga SPET in the follow-up of patients with head and neck cancer.
Opinions expressed by healthcare professionals on the impact of telecommunication services in implementing wireless technology

The advent of wireless technology has enabled healthcare organizations to trial innovative solutions in order to save cost and address some of the existing problems. In Australia, many healthcare organizations have either implemented or in the process of trialing wireless technology based solutions to address critical issues. This paper reports the outcome of opinions expressed by nurses on access to (telecommunication) resources in relation to wireless technology. The interview data were analysed using a software application to identify factors that impact the adoption of wireless technology as applicable to nursing.