Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Visual Processing in Reading and Dyslexia

The present research combines different paradigm in the area of visual perception of letter and words. These experiments aimed to understand the deficit underlying the problem associated with the faulty visual processing of letters and words. The present work summarizes the findings from two different types of population: (1) Dyslexics (reading-disabled children) and (2) Illiterates (adults who cannot read). In order to compare the results, comparisons were made between literate and illiterate group; dyslexics and control group (normal reading children). Differences for Even related potentials (ERP’s) between dyslexics and control children were made using mental rotation task for letters. According to the ERP’s, the effect of the mental rotation task of letter perception resulted as a delayed positive component and the component becomes less positive when the task becomes more difficult (Rotation related Negativity – RRN). The component was absent for dyslexics and present for controls. Dyslexics also showed some late effects in comparison to control children and this could be interpreted as problems at the decision stage where they are confused as to the letter is normal or mirrored. Dyslexics also have problems in responding to the letters having visual or phonological similarities (e.g. b vs d, p vs q). Visually similar letters were used to compare dyslexics and controls on a symmetry generalization task in two different contrast conditions (low and high). Dyslexics showed a similar pattern of response, and were overall slower in responding to the task compared to controls. The results were interpreted within the framework of the Functional Coordination Deficit (Lachmann, 2002). Dyslexics also showed delayed response in responding to the word recognition task during motion. Using red background decreases the Magnocellular pathway (M-pathway) activity, making more difficult to identify letters and this effect was worse for dyslexics because their M-pathway is weaker. In dyslexics, the M-pathway is worse; using a red background decreases the M activity and increases the difficulty in identifying lexical task in motion. This effect generated worse response to red compared to the green background. The reaction times with red were longer than those with green background. Further, Illiterates showed an analytic approach to responding to letters as well as on shapes. The analytic approach does not result from an individual capability to read, but is a primary base of visual organization or perception.
The immunoglobulin allotype contributed by peritoneal cavity B cells dominates in SCID mice reconstituted with allotype-disparate mixtures of splenic and peritoneal cavity B cells

We have studied potential regulatory interactions between mature B lymphocyte populations by analysis of C.B-17 severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice reconstituted simultaneously with immunoglobulin allotype-congenic mixtures of spleen (SP) and peritoneal cavity (PerC) B cells. We have previously shown that the independent transfer of B cells from these sources leads to the long-term survival of donor B cells and reconstitution of immunoglobulin levels in SCID mice (Riggs, J.E., D.L. Robertson, R.S. Stowers, and D.E. Mosier, manuscript submitted for publication). SP and PerC B cells differ in numerous respects, with the PerC having higher proportions of large, activated B cells that express the IgM greater than IgD phenotype and greater numbers of CD5 B cells. The injection of equal numbers of B cells from SP and PerC into SCID recipients (e.g., BALB/c SP + C.B-17 Per C----SCID) has led to the following observations: (a) serum IgM allotypes in B cell chimeras revealed strict dominance by the allotype contributed by the PerC B cells; (b) this dominance was not due to regulatory T cells; (c) B cells of the unexpressed (i.e., SP) allotype were present in the chimera in the spleen but not the peritoneal cavity; and (d) immunization with TI and TD antigens failed to elicit the SP IgM allotype, whereas secondary TD antigen immunization elicited low levels of the SP IgG2a allotype. Additional experiments demonstrated concurrent expression of IgM allotypes derived from both SP and PerC B cells in recipients that: (a) received a 10-fold excess of SP B cells; (b) received SP B cells before PerC B cell transfer; or (c) received SP B cells intravenously and PerC B cells intraperitoneally. We conclude that the establishment of IgM synthesis by PerC B cells leads to a feedback inhibition of subsequent IgM synthesis by SP B cells, and that the frequency of B cells that can lead to this effect is substantially higher in peritoneal cavity than in spleen. These data provide further confirmation of regulatory interactions between B cells in the absence of T lymphocytes, but confound the interpretation of experiments supporting the existence of a separate CD5+ B cell lineage.
Do Labour Market Conditions Affect Gift Exchange? Some Experimental Evidence

We study how two dimensions of market conditions affect behaviour in experimental gift-exchange markets with repeated interaction. First, we consider the impact of competitive imbalance, by varying whether there is an excess supply of "firms" or an excess supply of "workers" in the market. Second, we impose a minimum wage in the market with an excess supply of workers, and study the overall effect on wages and productivity. Perhaps surprisingly, the state of competition does not appear to have strong effects in our data; however, there is some evidence of lower productivity when a minimum wage is imposed. Copyright 2004 Royal Economic Society.
Host DNA Replication Is Induced by Geminivirus Infection of Differentiated Plant Cells Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantcell.org/cgi/doi/10.1105/tpc.005777.

The geminivirus Tomato golden mosaic virus (TGMV) replicates in differentiated plant cells using host DNA synthesis machinery. We used 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation to examine DNA synthesis directly in infected Nicotiana benthamiana plants to determine if viral reprogramming of host replication controls had an impact on host DNA replication. Immunoblot analysis revealed that up to 17-fold more BrdU was incorporated into chromosomal DNA of TGMV-infected versus mock-infected, similarly treated healthy leaves. Colocalization studies of viral DNA and BrdU demonstrated that BrdU incorporation was specific to infected cells and was associated with both host and viral DNA. TGMV and host DNA synthesis were inhibited differentially by aphidicolin but were equally sensitive to hydroxyurea. Short BrdU labeling times resulted in some infected cells showing punctate foci associated with host DNA. Longer periods showed BrdU label uniformly throughout host DNA, some of which showed condensed chromatin, only in infected nuclei. By contrast, BrdU associated with viral DNA was centralized and showed uniform, compartmentalized labeling. Our results demonstrate that chromosomal DNA is replicated in TGMV-infected cells.
Anti-CCR4 monoclonal antibody enhances antitumor immunity by modulating tumor-infiltrating Tregs in an ovarian cancer xenograft humanized mouse model

ABSTRACT Recent studies have demonstrated that regulatory T cells (Tregs) are recruited to tumor sites where they can suppress antitumor immunity. The chemokine receptor CCR4 is expressed at high levels on functional CD4+CD25+FoxP3+ Tregs and production of the CCR4 ligand CCL22 by tumor cells and tumor-associated macrophages is associated with Treg recruitment to the tumor site. Here, we tested IgG1 and IgG4 isotypes of human anti-CCR4 mAb2-3 for their in vitro activity and in vivo capacity in a NSG mouse model bearing CCL22-secreting ovarian cancer (OvCA) xenograft to modulate Tregs and restore antitumor activity. Both mAb2-3 isotypes blocked in vitro chemoattraction of Tregs to CCL22-secreting OvCA cells. However, they differed in their in vivo mode of action with IgG1 causing Treg depletion and IgG4 blocking migration to the tumors. Primary T cells that were primed with OvCA-pulsed dendritic cells (DCs) demonstrated INFγ secretion that could be enhanced through Treg depletion by mAb2-3. Humanized mice reconstructed with allogeneic tumor-primed T cells (TP-T) were used to evaluate the restoration of OvCA immunity by depletion or blockade of Tregs with mAb2-3. We observed that IgG1 was more potent than IgG4 in inhibiting tumor growth. Mechanism studies demonstrated that mAb2-3 treatment lead to inhibition of IL-2 binding to its receptor. Further studies showed that mAb2-3 induced CD25 shedding (sCD25) from Tregs which lead to a decrease in IL-2-dependent survival. Together, the results demonstrate that mAb2-3 is an agonist antibody that can restore anti-OvCA immunity through modulation of Treg activity.
Single Carrier Modulation With Nonlinear Frequency Domain Equalization: An Idea Whose Time Has Come—Again

In recent years single carrier modulation (SCM) has again become an interesting and complementary alternative to multicarrier modulations such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). This has been largely due to the use of nonlinear equalizer structures implemented in part in the frequency domain by means of fast Fourier transforms, bringing the complexity close to that of OFDM. Here a nonlinear equalizer is formed with a linear filter to remove part of intersymbol interference, followed by a canceler of remaining interference by using previous detected data. Moreover, the capacity of SCM is similar to that of OFDM in highly dispersive channels only if a nonlinear equalizer is adopted at the receiver. Indeed, the study of efficient nonlinear frequency domain equalization techniques has further pushed the adoption of SCM in various standards. This tutorial paper aims at providing an overview of nonlinear equalization methods as a key ingredient in receivers of SCM for wideband transmission. We review both hybrid (with filters implemented both in time and frequency domain) and all-frequency-domain iterative structures. Application of nonlinear frequency domain equalizers to a multiple input multiple output scenario is also investigated, with a comparison of two architectures for interference reduction. We also present methods for channel estimation and alternatives for pilot insertion. The impact on SCM transmission of impairments such as phase noise, frequency offset and saturation due to high power amplifiers is also assessed. The comparison among the considered frequency domain equalization techniques is based both on complexity and performance, in terms of bit error rate or throughput.
Non-muscle involvement in late-onset Glycogenosis II

Glycogenosis II (GSD II) is an autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disorder resulting from acid alpha-glucosidase deficiency, subsequent accumulation of glycogen in tissues, impairment of autophagic processes and progressive cardiac, motor and respiratory failure. The late-onset form is characterized by wide variability in residual enzyme activity, age of onset, rate of disease progression and phenotypical spectrum. Although the pathological process mainly affects the skeletal muscle, several other tissues may be involved in the course of the disease; therefore GSD II should be regarded as a multisystem disorder in which glycogen accumulation is present in skeletal and smooth muscle, heart, brain, liver, spleen, salivary glands, kidney and blood vessels. In this review, we briefly summarize the main non-muscle targets of the pathological process in late-onset GSD II. Further studies aimed at evaluating the extra-muscle involvement in this group of patients will help to better define clinical features and prognostic factors and to delineate the natural history of the disease.
PFinder: Efficiently detecting bugs in concurrent programs through parallelizing race verification

Races hidden in concurrent programs can lead to harmful bugs. These bugs are difficult to detect due to their non-deterministic characteristics. Previous work has tried to dynamically verify races in actual executions to check whether they would lead to failures. However, it is inefficient to verify all the races to find the harmful bugs if there are a large number of races. To improve the efficiency, PFinder is the first technique that uses a parallel method to verify multiple races on multiple machines simultaneously. We have implemented PFinder as a prototype tool and have experimented on a number of real-world concurrent programs. All the known bugs in known benchmarks are detected. Also, PFinder could scale well as the number of machines increases. Additionally, the speedup of PFinder can be increased linearly with the number of machines.
Development Strategy, Viability, and Economic Convergence*

The paper argues that an economy's industry/technology structure is endogenously determined by the economy's endowment structure. For the convergence to occur, the government of an LDC should target the upgrading of endowment structure instead of the industry/technology structure in its development strategy. If the government chooses to pursue an industry/technology structure, which is inconsistent with the comparative advantage determined by the economy's endowment structure, the firms in the government's priority sectors will be nonviable and the government needs to suppress the function of market and distort all kinds of prices as a way to protect the nonviable firms. Convergence will fail to occur as a result. Regression results from cross-country panel data are consistent with the predictions of the above arguments.
PENGARUH SUKU BUNGA, INFLASI, NILAI BUKU TERHADAP HARGA SAHAM PERUSAHAAN INDEKS LQ45 YANG TERDAFTAR DI BURSA EFEK INDONESIA (BEI)

Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengidentifikasi dan menganalisis apakah suku bunga, inflasi dan nilai buku berpengaruh pada harga saham pada perusahaan yang termasuk dalam LQ45 indeks tercatat di Bursa Efek Indonesia. Data yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah data sekunder. Populasi yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah seluruh perusahaan yang termasuk dalam daftar LQ45 sebanyak 45 perusahaan yang terdiri dari sembilan sektor di mana sampel diambil dengan teknik purposive sampling. Metode analisis data dalam penelitian ini adalah analisis regresi berganda yang meliputi analisis statistik deskriptif dan asumsi klasik. Kesimpulan dari penelitian ini adalah efek negatif yang signifikan dari inflasi terhadap harga saham, jika inflasi meningkat, harga saham akan menurun. Sementara suku bunga yang signifikan berpengaruh positif terhadap harga saham, jika suku bunga naik, harga saham akan naik. nilai buku berpengaruh negatif signifikan terhadap harga saham, jika nilai buku meningkat maka harga saham akan turun.
STELLAR POPULATIONS IN THE ANDROMEDA V DWARF SPHEROIDAL GALAXY

Using archival imaging from the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, we investigate the stellar populations of the Local Group dwarf spheroidal Andromeda V—a companion satellite galaxy of M31. The color–magnitude diagram extends from above the first ascent red giant branch (RGB) tip to approximately 1 mag below the horizontal branch (HB). The steep well-defined RGB is indicative of a metal-poor system while the HB is populated predominantly redward of the RR Lyrae instability strip. Utilizing Galactic globular cluster fiducial sequences as a reference, we calculate a mean metallicity of [Fe/H] = −2.20 ± 0.15 and a distance of (m − M)0 = 24.57 ± 0.04 after adopting a reddening of E(B − V) = 0.16. This metal abundance places And V squarely in the absolute magnitude–metallicity diagram for dwarf spheroidal galaxies. In addition, if we attribute the entire error-corrected color spread of the RGB stars to an abundance spread, we estimate a range of ∼0.5 dex in the metallicities of And V stars. Our analysis of the variable-star population of And V reveals the presence of 28 potential variables. Of these, at least 10 are almost certainly RR Lyrae stars based on their time sequence photometry.
Prediction of rodent nongenotoxic carcinogenesis: evaluation of biochemical and tissue changes in rodents following exposure to nine nongenotoxic NTP carcinogens.

We studied nine presumed nongenotoxic rodent carcinogens, as defined by the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP), to determine their ability to induce acute or subacute biochemical and tissue changes that may act as useful predictors of nongenotoxic rodent carcinogenesis. The chemicals selected included six liver carcinogens (two of which are peroxisome proliferators), three thyroid gland carcinogens, and four kidney carcinogens. We administered the chemicals (diethylhexyl phthalate, cinnamyl anthranilate, chlorendic acid, 1,4-dichlorobenzene, monuron, ethylene thiourea, diethyl thiourea, trimethyl thiourea, and d-limonene to the same strains of mice and rats used in the original NTP bioassays (nine chemicals to rats and seven to mice). Selected tissues (liver, thyroid gland, and kidney) were collected from groups of animals at 7, 28, and 90 days for evaluation. Tissue changes selected for study were monitored for all of the test groups, irrespective of the specificity of the carcinogenic responses observed in those tissues. This allowed us to assess both the carcinogen specificity and the carcinogen sensitivity of the events being monitored. We studied relative weight, cell labeling indices, and pathologic changes such as hypertrophy in all tissues; a range of cytochrome P450 enzymes and palmitoyl coenzyme A oxidase in the liver; changes in the levels of plasma total triiodothyronine, total thyroxine, and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) as markers of thyroid gland function; and hyaline droplet formation, tubular basophilia, and the formation of granular casts in the kidney. There were no single measurements that alerted specifically to the carcinogenicity of the agents to the rodent liver, thyroid gland, or kidney. However, in the majority of cases, the chemical induction of cancer in a tissue was preceded by a range of biochemical/morphologic changes, most of which were moderately specific for a carcinogenic outcome, and some of which were highly specific for it (e.g., increases in TSH in the thyroid gland and increases in relative liver weight in the mouse). The only measurements that failed to correlate usefully with carcinogenicity were the induction of liver enzymes (with the exception of the enzymes associated with peroxisome proliferation). Most of the useful markers were evident at the early times studied (7 days and 28 days), but no overall best time for the measurement of all markers was identified. The judicious choice of markers and evaluation times can aid the detection of potential nongenotoxic rodent carcinogens.
A change of diet from rodents to rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). Is the wildcat (Felis silvestris) a specialist predator

The results of a study testing the hypothesis that wildcats Felis silvestris are rodent-specialist predators is reported. The diet of wildcats was studied in different habitats from central Spain where rabbits Oryctolagus cuniculus were either present or absent in order to explore whether the wildcat is a facultative or a rodent specialist. We predicted that if the wildcat was a rodent specialist there would be no differences in rodent composition in scats between areas with or without another profitable prey such as rabbits. To test this hypothesis, 239 scats were collected in two contrasting habitat types: Mediterranean vegetation areas, where rabbits were either present or absent, and Pyrenean oak forests, where there were no rabbits. All areas and habitat types were sampled in different seasons. The frequency of occurrence and biomass of different prey items and diet diversity were compared between habitats and areas with the presence/absence of rabbits. Wildcats consumed significantly fewer rodents in areas with rabbits than in areas where rabbits were absent, and diet diversity showed important seasonal variations. Values for diet diversity were lower in areas where rabbits were present. Thus it can be stated that wildcats do not specialize in rodents, and we suggest a facultative specialization on different prey items (rabbits or rodents) according to prey availability.
Age Effects on Consumer Demand: An Additive Partially Linear Regression Model

An additive partially linear regression model is used to estimate non-parametrically the effects of total expenditure and age in the context of Engel curves and to investigate the specification and welfare interpretation of the age effects in parametric models of consumer behaviour. Empirical analysis based on data drawn from the U.K. Family Expenditure Survey shows that modelling of the effects of age requires a more sophisticated approach than that generally adopted in parametric demand analysis. It also shows that failing to adequately capture these effects can have misleading welfare implications.
Support of a Problem-Based Learning Curriculum by Basic Science Faculty

Abstract Although published reports describe benefits to students of learning in a problem-based, student-centered environment, questions have persisted about the excessive faculty time commitments associated with the implementation of PBL pedagogy. The argument has been put forward that the excessive faculty costs of such a curriculum cannot be justified based upon the potential benefits to students. However, the magnitude of the faculty time commitment to a PBL curriculum to support the aforementioned argument is not clear to us and we suspect that it is also equally unclear to individuals charged with making resource decisions supporting the educational efforts of the institution. Therefore, to evaluate this cost - benefit question, we analyzed the actual basic science faculty time commitment in a hybrid PBL curriculum during the first phase 18 months of undergraduate medical education. The results of this analysis do demonstrate an increase in faculty time commitments but do not support the argument that PBL pedagogy is excessively costly in terms of faculty time. For the year analyzed in this report, basic science faculty members contributed on average of 27.4 hours to the instruction of medical students. The results of the analysis did show significant contributions (57% of instructional time) by the clinical faculty during the initial 18 months of medical school. In addition, the data revealed a four-fold difference between time commitments of the four basic science departments. We conclude that a PBL curriculu m does not place unreasonable demands on the time of basic science faculty. The demands on clinical faculty, in the context of their other commitments, could not be evaluated. Moreover, this type of analysis provides a tool that can be used to make faculty resource allocation decisions fairly.