Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determinants influencing conservation behaviour: Perceptions of Vietnamese consumers

Environmental degradation is one of the most serious issues impacting our lives and those of future generations. In this respect, several studies on pro-environmental behaviour have investigated the attitude–behaviour relationship of consumers. This study builds on previous models and examines the influence of four relevant determinants, i.e. consumers' perceptions associated with environmental concern, ecological effect, perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE) and moral obligation on their pro-environmental behaviour. The data were collected from consumers in Vietnam, where there are serious environmental issues. The findings suggest that all the four determinants influenced consumers' conservation behaviour, albeit each in varying strengths. The most influential determinant was PCE, followed by ecological effect, environmental concern and finally moral obligation. The findings of this study have important academic and practical implications. Government and private environmental and sustainability campaigners, especially in Vietnam, would be well advised to use these findings in developing and designing new policies and initiatives aimed at enhancing consumers' pro-environmental behaviour. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Annotating Cancer Variants and Anti-Cancer Therapeutics in Reactome

Reactome describes biological pathways as chemical reactions that closely mirror the actual physical interactions that occur in the cell. Recent extensions of our data model accommodate the annotation of cancer and other disease processes. First, we have extended our class of protein modifications to accommodate annotation of changes in amino acid sequence and the formation of fusion proteins to describe the proteins involved in disease processes. Second, we have added a disease attribute to reaction, pathway, and physical entity classes that uses disease ontology terms. To support the graphical representation of “cancer” pathways, we have adapted our Pathway Browser to display disease variants and events in a way that allows comparison with the wild type pathway, and shows connections between perturbations in cancer and other biological pathways. The curation of pathways associated with cancer, coupled with our efforts to create other disease-specific pathways, will interoperate with our existing pathway and network analysis tools. Using the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) signaling pathway as an example, we show how Reactome annotates and presents the altered biological behavior of EGFR variants due to their altered kinase and ligand-binding properties, and the mode of action and specificity of anti-cancer therapeutics.
Therapeutic developments in the therapy of heart failure: lessons to be learned.

This editorial refers to ‘Effect of the angiotensin-receptor-neprilysin inhibitor LCZ696 compared with enalapril on mode of death in heart failure patients’[†][1], by A.S. Desai et al . , on page 1990. The PARADIGM study examined the treatment effect of the angiotensin receptor–neprilysin inhibitor LCZ696, as compared with enalapril, in addition to other standard therapy in 8399 patients with chronic heart failure secondary to reduced systolic function. The results are impressive, as the experimental therapy was associated with highly significant reductions in both mortality and hospitalizations for congestive heart failure.1 These findings have received widespread attention, heralded as a ‘paradigm shift’ in the therapy of heart failure. They have also generated controversy, as leaders in the field urge caution in the interpretation of both the magnitude and clinical applicability of the results.2,3 Furthermore, for the first time in the history of the pharmacotherapy of chronic heart failure secondary to reduced systolic function, the (likely) approval of LCZ696 will require physicians to make a therapeutic decision which does not involve the addition of a new drug but rather changing large numbers of patients from a proven therapeutic class of therapy to a new pharmacological approach. In this issue of the journal, the PARADIGM investigators present an analysis of the mode of death in patients who participated in the PARADIGM study.4 The majority of deaths were cardiovascular (80.9%), and LCZ696, as compared with enalapril, was associated with a 20% reduction in cardiovascular deaths. The number of non-cardiovascular deaths and deaths of unknown cause were similar in the two treatment arms. Of the cardiovascular deaths, the majority were sudden (44.8%) while the second … [1]: #fn-2
Cortical Plasticity of Audio–Visual Object Representations

Several regions in human temporal and frontal cortex are known to integrate visual and auditory object features. The processing of audio–visual (AV) associations in these regions has been found to be modulated by object familiarity. The aim of the present study was to explore training-induced plasticity in human cortical AV integration. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to analyze the neural correlates of AV integration for unfamiliar artificial object sounds and images in naïve subjects (PRE training) and after a behavioral training session in which subjects acquired associations between some of these sounds and images (POST-training). In the PRE-training session, unfamiliar artificial object sounds and images were mainly integrated in right inferior frontal cortex (IFC). The POST-training results showed extended integration-related IFC activations bilaterally, and a recruitment of additional regions in bilateral superior temporal gyrus/sulcus and intraparietal sulcus. Furthermore, training-induced differential response patterns to mismatching compared with matching (i.e., associated) artificial AV stimuli were most pronounced in left IFC. These effects were accompanied by complementary training-induced congruency effects in right posterior middle temporal gyrus and fusiform gyrus. Together, these findings demonstrate that short-term cross-modal association learning was sufficient to induce plastic changes of both AV integration of object stimuli and mechanisms of AV congruency processing.
Predicting job adaptability: A facet-level examination of the relationship between conscientiousness and adaptive performance with autonomy as a moderator

Crowley, Megan L. M.S., Purdue University, December 2011. Predicting Job Adaptability: A Facet-Level Examination of the Relationship Between Conscientiousness and Adaptive Performance With Autonomy as a Moderator. Major Professor: John T. Hazer. Change has become a prevalent feature of today’s organizations, resulting in an increased demand for workers who are able to adapt to the dynamic nature of the environment. Recently, many have suggested that traditional models of job performance should be expanded to include an adaptive performance dimension. Research in this relatively new domain has focused on defining adaptive performance and understanding how it may be predicted. This study contributes to these efforts by testing the personality trait of conscientiousness as a predictor of adaptive performance, with both constructs being studied at their domain and facet levels. The incremental validity of conscientiousness over cognitive ability is also examined, and autonomy is investigated as a moderator of the conscientiousness-adaptive performance relationships. A sample of 212 undergraduate students who work at least 20 hours per week participated in the study by completing an online survey and a cognitive ability assessment. Conscientiousness was supported as a good predictor of adaptive performance overall. However, the predictor-outcome results did vary over the domain and facet levels, emphasizing the importance of studying both levels. At the two-facet level of conscientiousness, the
Co-Expression of Host and Viral MicroRNAs in Porcine Dendritic Cells Infected by the Pseudorabies Virus

MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs approximately 22 nt long that modulate gene expression in animals and plants. It has been recently demonstrated that herpesviruses encode miRNAs to control the post-transcriptional regulation of expression from their own genomes and possibly that of their host, thus adding an additional layer of complexity to the physiological cross-talk between host and pathogen. The present study focussed on the interactions between porcine dendritic cells (DCs) and the Pseudorabies virus (PRV), an alpha-herpesvirus causing Aujeszky's disease in pigs. A catalogue of porcine and viral miRNAs, expressed eight hours post-infection, was established by deep sequencing. An average of 2 million reads per sample with a size of 21–24 nucleotides was obtained from six libraries representing three biological replicates of infected and mock-infected DCs. Almost 95% of reads mapped to the draft pig genome sequence and pig miRNAs previously annotated in dedicated databases were detected by sequence alignment. In silico prediction allowed the identification of unknown porcine as well as of five miRNAs transcribed by the Large Latency Transcript (LLT) of PRV. The gene target prediction of the viral miRNAs and the Ingenuity Pathway Analysis of differentially expressed pig miRNAs were conducted to contextualize the identified small RNA molecules and functionally characterize their involvement in the post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. The results support a role for PRV miRNAs in the maintenance of the host cell latency state through the down-regulation of immediate-early viral genes which is similar to other herpesviruses. The differentially expressed swine miRNAs identified a unique network of target genes with highly significant functions in the development and function of the nervous system and in infectious mechanisms, suggesting that the modulation of both host and viral miRNAs is necessary for the establishment of PRV latency.
Energy saving through a learning framework in greener cellular radio access networks

Recent works have validated the possibility of energy efficiency improvement in radio access networks (RAN), depending on dynamically turn on/off some base stations (BSs). In this paper, we extend the research over BS switching operation, matching up with traffic load variations. However, instead of depending on the predicted traffic loads, which is still quite challenging to precisely forecast, we formulate the traffic variation as a Markov decision process (MDP). Afterwards, in order to foresightedly minimize the energy consumption of RAN, we adopt the actor-critic method and design a reinforcement learning framework based BS switching operation scheme. In the end, we evaluate our proposed scheme by extensive simulations under various practical configurations and prove the feasibility of significant energy efficiency improvement.
MODAL EMPIRICISM AND KNOWLEDGE OF DE RE POSSIBILITIES: A CRITIQUE OF ROCA-ROYES’ ACCOUNT

Accounting for our knowledge of de re modalities is probably the main reason why the proponents of modal empiricism think that their view should be preferred to modal rationalism. In this paper, I address Sonia Roca-Royes’ account, which is taken to be a representative modal empiricist view, in order to show that modal empiricism faces serious problems even in explaining our knowledge of possibility de re, something which seems to be the easiest thing to explain on this view. I argue that Roca-Royes’ account does not prove what she claims it does, that it can hardly be articulated in a non-redundant way, and that her account of our knowledge of possibility de re can hardly be reconciled with the essentiality of origin principle, to which modal empiricists sometimes appeal while criticizing the modal rationalist account.
Differences in transcription levels among wild, domesticated, and hybrid Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) from two environments

Escaped domesticated individuals can introduce disadvantageous traits into wild populations due to both adaptive differences between population ancestors and human‐induced changes during domestication. In contrast to their domesticated counterparts, some endangered wild Atlantic salmon populations encounter during their marine stage large amounts of suspended sediments, which may act as a selective agent. We used microarrays to elucidate quantitative transcriptional differences between a domesticated salmon strain, a wild population and their first‐generation hybrids during their marine life stage, to describe transcriptional responses to natural suspended sediments, and to test for adaptive genetic variation in plasticity relating to a history of natural exposure or nonexposure to suspended sediments. We identified 67 genes differing in transcription level among salmon groups. Among these genes, processes related to energy metabolism and ion homoeostasis were over‐represented, while genes contributing to immunity and actin‐/myosin‐related processes were also involved in strain differentiation. Domestic–wild hybrids exhibited intermediate transcription patterns relative to their parents for two‐thirds of all genes that differed between their parents; however, genes deviating from additivity tended to have similar levels to those expressed by the wild parent. Sediments induced increases in transcription levels of eight genes, some of which are known to contribute to external or intracellular damage mitigation. Although genetic variation in plasticity did not differ significantly between groups after correcting for multiple comparisons, two genes (metallothionein and glutathione reductase) tended to be more plastic in response to suspended sediments in wild and hybrid salmon, and merit further examination as candidate genes under natural selection.
Comparative longitudinal structural analyses of the growth and decline of multiple intellectual abilities over the life span.

Latent growth curve techniques and longitudinal data are used to examine predictions from the theory of fluid and crystallized intelligence (Gf-Gc theory; J. L. Horn & R. B. Cattell, 1966, 1967). The data examined are from a sample (N approximately 1,200) measured on the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-Revised (WJ-R). The longitudinal structural equation models used are based on latent growth models of age using two-occasion "accelerated" data (e.g., J. J. McArdle & R. Q. Bell, 2000; J. J. McArdle & R. W. Woodcock, 1997). Nonlinear mixed-effects growth models based on a dual exponential rate yield a reasonable fit to all life span cognitive data. These results suggest that most broad cognitive functions fit a generalized curve that rises and falls. Novel multilevel models directly comparing growth curves show that broad fluid reasoning (Gf) and acculturated crystallized knowledge (Gc) have different growth patterns. In all comparisons, any model of cognitive age changes with only a single g factor yields an overly simplistic view of growth and change over age.
Numeracy, frequency, and Bayesian reasoning

Previous research has demonstrated that Bayesian reasoning performance is improved if uncertainty information is presented as natural frequencies rather than single-event probabilities. A questionnaire study of 342 college students replicated this effect but also found that the performance-boosting benefits of the natural frequency presentation occurred primarily for participants who scored high in numeracy. This finding suggests that even comprehension and manipulation of natural frequencies requires a certain threshold of numeracy abilities, and that the beneficial effects of natural frequency presentation may not be as general as previously believed.
Interleukin-2 receptor monoclonal antibodies in renal transplantation: meta-analysis of randomised trials

Abstract Objective: To study the effect of interleukin-2 receptor monoclonal antibodies on acute rejection episodes, graft loss, deaths, and rate of infection and malignancy in patients with renal transplants. Design: Meta-analysis of published data. Data sources: Medline, Embase, and Cochrane library for years 1996–2003 plus search of medical editors' trial amnesty and contact with manufacturers of the antibodies. Selection of studies: Randomised controlled trials comparing interleukin-2 receptor antibodies with placebo or no additional treatment in patients with renal transplants receiving ciclosporin based immunosuppression. Results: Eight randomised controlled trials involving 1871 patients met the selection criteria (although only 1858 patients were analysed). Interleukin-2 receptor antibodies significantly reduced the risk of acute rejection (odds ratio 0.51, 95% confidence interval 0.42 to 0.63). There were no significant differences in the rate of graft loss (0.78, 0.58 to 1.04), mortality (0.75, 0.46 to 1.23), overall incidence of infections (0.97, 0.77 to 1.24), incidence of cytomegalovirus infections (0.81, 0.62 to 1.04), or risk of malignancies at one year (0.82, 0.39 to 1.70). The different antibodies had a similar sized effect on acute rejection (test for heterogeneity P=0.7): anti-Tac (0.37, 0.16 to 0.89), BT563 (0.37, 0.1 to 1.38), basiliximab (0.56, 0.44 to 0.72), and daclizumab (0.46, 0.32 to 0.67). The reduction in acute rejections was similar for all ciclosporin based immunosuppression regimens (test for heterogeneity P=1.0). Conclusions: Adding interleukin-2 receptor antibodies to ciclosporin based immunosuppression reduces episodes of acute rejection at six months by 49%. There is no evidence of an increased risk of infective complications. Longer follow up studies are needed to confirm whether interleukin-2 receptor antibodies improve long term graft and patient survival. What is already known on this topic Episodes of acute rejection reduce graft survival in patients with renal transplants Increasing immunosuppression to reduce rejection can increase infection and malignancy What this study adds Addition of interleukin-2 receptor antibodies to ciclosporin based immunosuppression regimens halves the risk of acute rejection Patients receiving antibodies did not have an increased risk of infection The effects on graft loss and mortality at one year were not significant
The Unique Karyotype of Henochilus wheatlandii, a Critically Endangered Fish Living in a Fast-Developing Region in Minas Gerais State, Brazil

Henochilus wheatlandii, the only species of this genus, is critically endangered and was considered extinct for over a century. The rediscovery of this fish in 1996 made it possible to study its phylogenetic relationships with other species in the subfamily Bryconinae. The aim of this study was to characterise the karyotype of H. wheatlandii. Standard staining, C-positive heterochromatin and nucleolar organiser region (NOR) banding, chromomycin A3 staining, and fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH) using 5S rDNA and 18S rDNA probes were conducted on nineteen specimens collected in the Santo Antonio River, a sub-basin of the Doce River in Ferros municipality, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Henochilus wheatlandii shared the same diploid number and chromosome morphology as other species of Bryconinae. However, its heterochromatin distribution patterns, NOR localisation, and FISH patterns revealed a cytogenetic profile unique among Neotropical Bryconinae, emphasizing the evolutionary uniqueness of this threatened species.
German Plural Processing: New Evidence from ERP- and Reaction Time Experiments

The processing of the German plural has been examined in a range of behavioral and neurophysiological studies. A number of studies so far showed differences between the processing of the default plural form -s and the irregular plural form -(e)n. While previous studies focused on the examination of generally two plural categories (e.g. -(e)n versus -s), the current study aimed at examining four German plural categories with different morpheme endings and violating them cross-wise. The results of the current auditory event-related (ERP) and reaction time study show general similarities between the more acoustically salient plural categories. In the early latency range from 200 - 400 ms -n violated by -s plural (and the cross-condition) act differently from the -e versus -er plural violations (and the cross-conditions) but in the later time windows only violation effects are visible. Processing differences may be explained by the morphological characteristics of the plural categories and/or phonetic differences between the suffixes.
Identity formation among isiXhosa-speaking adolescents in a rural Eastern Cape community in South Africa: A brief report

The study investigated identity-related choices practised among South African isiXhosa-speaking adolescents from a rural Eastern Cape community. A sample of 40 adolescents (65% females; age range 15 and 21 years) participated in the study. The adolescents completed an identity statuses interview schedule in relation to the domains of occupation, religion, and politics; as well as on sexuality. The data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics by identity dimension. Findings indicate the commitment identity statuses are significant for the adolescents in their decision-making. Active exploration was infrequently endorsed. Female adolescents endorsed the identity achievement status for the career domain more than did their male peers. A high proportion of males endorsed to hold pro-premarital sex identity compared to females. Identity-related decision-making was similar for both genders in their endorsement of identity-related decision-making processes.
Instrumental variable based methods for continuous-time linear parameter varying system identification with fractional models

This paper deals with continuous-time linear parameter varying (LPV) system identification with fractional models. Two variants of instrumental variables based techniques are proposed to estimate continuous-time parameters of a fractional differential equation linear parameter varying model when all fractional orders are assumed known a priori: the first one is the instrumental variables estimator based in an auxiliary model. The second one is the simplified refined instrumental variables estimator. A comparison study between the developed estimators is done via a numerical example. A Monte Carlo simulation analysis results are presented to illustrate the performances of the proposed methods in the presence of an additive output noise.
The inactivation in vitro of transplantable myeloid and lymphoid mouse leukemic cells by antibodies produced in a foreign host species.

Mouse leukemic cells can be differentiated from homologous normal cells by antigenic differences. The neutralization technic demonstrated the ability of rabbit antileukemic tissue antiserum to render a lethal dose of leukemic cells innocuous upon admixture before injection. The specific antibodies were shown to be heat-stable, 30 minutes at 60° C. , whereas inhibitory substances demonstrated in normal rabbit serum and in normal tissue antiserum were inactivated at that temperature. The discovery of natural inhibitory substances in rabbit serum makes pertinent the re-examination of the findings of other workers in this field. The lines of leukemic cells employed were myeloid leukemic cells of line 15 from strain F mice and lymphatic leukemic cells, line Ib, in strain C58 mice.
Games as Software: Similarities and Differences between the Implementation Projects

The game development in principle is not different from the traditional software development. In this study, the aim is to assess the video game development from the viewpoint of software engineering, assessing which software development activities are similar, and which incompatible within the game industry context. We interviewed 11 companies and conducted a survey to understand these differences; the project management and development tasks are similar, but the detailed activities, such as requirements engineering practices, are noticeably different.