Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mechanical and morphological properties of different muscle–tendon units in the lower extremity and running mechanics: effect of aging and physical activity

SUMMARY The objectives of this work were (i) to investigate whether chronic endurance running is a sufficient stimulus to counteract the age-related changes in the mechanical and morphological properties of human triceps surae (TS) and quadriceps femoris (QF) muscle–tendon units (MTUs) by comparing runners and non-active subjects at different ages (young and old), (ii) to identify adaptational phenomena in running mechanics due to age-related changes in the mechanical and morphological properties of the TS and QF MTUs, and finally (iii) to examine whether chronic endurance-running exercise is associated with adaptational effects on running characteristics in old and young adults. The investigation was conducted on 30 old and 19 young adult males divided into two subgroups according to their running activity: endurance-runners vs non-active. To analyse the properties of the MTUs, all subjects performed isometric maximal voluntary (MVC) ankle plantarflexion and knee extension contractions at 11 different MTU lengths on a dynamometer. The activation of the TS and QF during MVC was estimated by surface electromyography. The gastrocnemius medialis and the vastus lateralis and their distal aponeuroses were visualized by ultrasonography at rest and during MVC, respectively. Ground reaction forces and kinematic data were recorded during running trials at 2.7 m s–1. The TS and QF MTU capacities were reduced with aging (lower muscle strength and lower tendon stiffness). Runners and non-active subjects had similar MTU properties, suggesting that chronic endurance-running exercise does not counteract the age-related degeneration of the MTUs. Runners showed a higher mechanical advantage for the QF MTU while running (lower gear ratio) compared to non-active subjects, indicating a task-specific adaptation even at old age. Older adults reacted to the reduced capacities of their MTUs by increasing running safety (higher duty factor, lower flight time) and benefitting from a mechanical advantage for the TS MTU, lower rate of force generation and force generation per meter distance. We suggest that the improvement in running mechanics in the older adults happens due to a perceptual motor recalibration and a feed-forward adaptation of the motor task aimed at decreasing the disparity between the reduced capacity of the MTUs and the running effort.
An Empirical Investigation of Statistical Significance in NLP

We investigate two aspects of the empirical behavior of paired significance tests for NLP systems. First, when one system appears to outperform another, how does significance level relate in practice to the magnitude of the gain, to the size of the test set, to the similarity of the systems, and so on? Is it true that for each task there is a gain which roughly implies significance? We explore these issues across a range of NLP tasks using both large collections of past systems' outputs and variants of single systems. Next, once significance levels are computed, how well does the standard i.i. d. notion of significance hold up in practical settings where future distributions are neither independent nor identically distributed, such as across domains? We explore this question using a range of test set variations for constituency parsing.
Synapse‐dependent and independent mechanisms of thalamocortical axon branching are regulated by neuronal activity

Axon branching and synapse formation are critical processes for establishing precise circuit connectivity. These processes are tightly regulated by neural activity, but the relationship between them remains largely unclear. We use organotypic coculture preparations to examine the role of synapse formation in the activity‐dependent axon branching of thalamocortical (TC) projections. To visualize TC axons and their presynaptic sites, two plasmids encoding DsRed and EGFP‐tagged synaptophysin (SYP‐EGFP) were cotransfected into a small number of thalamic neurons. Time‐lapse imaging of individual TC axons showed that most branches emerged from SYP‐EGFP puncta, indicating that synapse formation precedes emergences of axonal branches. We also investigated the effects of neuronal activity on axon branching and synapse formation by manipulating spontaneous firing activity of thalamic cells. An inward rectifying potassium channel, Kir2.1, and a bacterial voltage‐gated sodium channel, NaChBac, were used to suppress and promote firing activity, respectively. We found suppressing neural activity reduced both axon branching and synapse formation. In contrast, increasing neural activity promoted only axonal branch formation. Time‐lapse imaging of NaChBac‐expressing cells further revealed that new branches frequently appeared from the locations other than SYP‐EGFP puncta, indicating that enhancing activity promotes axonal branch formation due to an increase of branch emergence at nonsynaptic sites. These results suggest that presynaptic locations are hotspots for branch emergence, and that frequent firing activity can shift branch emergence to a synapse‐independent process. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 76: 323–336, 2016
What’s in a (Party) name? Examining preferences, discipline, and social identity in a parliamentary free vote

In trying to understand the effects of political parties on shaping the voting behaviour of legislators, research has attempted the difficult task of separating the effects of preferences from rules used by party leaders to enforce discipline. However, little research has explored the prospect that party labels also reflect a social identity that is independent of legislators’ preferences and the rules used by party leaders to enforce discipline. In this study we examine that possibility, employing a data set that permits us to control both for leadership-based effects and legislator preferences on a 2000 free vote dealing with stem cell research. Using the British Representation Studies 1997 – which interviewed Members of Parliament regarding their preferences on several key issues related to the bill – we find significant evidence that party-as-identification plays a role in shaping how legislators vote, even after preferences and discipline are accounted for.
Prevalence of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in liver cirrhosis with ascites

Introduction Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is a common bacterial infection in patients with cirrhosis and ascites requiring prompt recognition and treatment. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence, and characteristics of SBP among in-patients with cirrhosis and ascites seen at our facility. Methods Thirty one patients with liver cirrhosis and ascites who were admitted into the Medical ward of the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH), Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria from August 2009 to July 2010 were retrospectively studied. All the patients had abdominal paracentesis done within 48 hours of admission under aseptic condition and the data obtained were analyzed. Results The mean age of the studied population was 62±9 years (age range 43-78 years). Of the 21 that developed SPB, culture positive SBP was present in 66.7% (14/21) while CNNA was found in 33.3% (7/21). The prevalence of MNB was 26% (8/31) in this study. Of those with SBP, 93% had monomicrobial infection with aerobic Gram negative bacilli being responsible in 66.7% of the cases with E.coli (70%) being the predominant organism followed by Klebsiella species. Gram positive organisms accounted for 33.3% with Streptococcal species (60%) being the predominant organism followed by Staphylococcus aureus (40%). Patients with SBP had significantly lower platelet count when compared with those without SBP, p < 0.05. Also, international normalization ratio (INR) was significantly higher in those patients with SBP compared with those without SBP, p < 0.05. The poor prognostic indicators found in this study were; low ascitic protein, hepatic encephalopathy, coagulopathy, renal dysfunction (creatinine >2mg/dl) and leukocytosis (p < 0.05). Conclusion It is therefore imperative to do diagnostic abdominal paracentesis for cell count and culture in any patient with onset of ascites or cirrhotic patients with ascites and suggestive symptoms compatible or suggestive of SBP.
On the social nature of nonsocial perception: The mere ownership effect.

The assumption of the present research was that ownership of an object causes the owner to treat the object as a social entity because ownership creates a psychological association between the object and the owner. Three experiments investigated whether Ss would evaluate an object more favorably merely because they owned it, a bias analogous to other self-serving biases people display.
Pupil progress in the acquisition of the perfect tense in French: the relationship between knowledge and use

The role of explicit knowledge in the teaching and learning of a second language has been the subject of much research. Little of this, however, has taken place within the context of the Modern Foreign Languages in secondary school classrooms in the UK. In this study, we investigate the relationship between knowing and using the perfect tense in French in a small-scale project carried out over two years, involving a small group of learners.
Overlooking interpersonal hurt: A global processing style influences forgiveness in work relationships

Interpersonal offences occur routinely in the workplace and are often not forgiven. Unforgiveness has negative consequences, including reduced mental and physical well-being. Therefore, it is necessary to increase our understanding on how interpersonal forgiveness is achieved. We propose that forgiveness can be influenced by generalized modes of information processing (broad vs. narrow processing), temporarily activated by earlier tasks. A prior task activating a broad (vs. narrow) focus of attention would facilitate willingness to forgive. Supporting this, in three experiments, a broad mental perspective evoked in a prior unrelated task increased willingness to forgive offences by colleagues. This occurs by making the offense appear less severe. We discuss implications for theorizing on interpersonal forgiveness and for organizations.
Electrophysiology of rabbit Müller (glial) cells in experimental retinal detachment and PVR.

PURPOSE To determine the electrophysiological properties of Müller (glial) cells from experimentally detached rabbit retinas. METHODS A stable local retinal detachment was induced by subretinal injection of a sodium hyaluronate solution. Müller cells were acutely dissociated and studied by the whole-cell voltage-clamp technique. RESULTS The cell membranes of Müller cells from normal retinas were dominated by a large inwardly rectifying potassium ion (K+) conductance that caused a low-input resistance (<100 M(Omega)) and a high resting membrane potential (-82 +/- 6 mV). During the first week after detachment, the Müller cells became reactive as shown by glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) immunoreactivity, and their inward currents were markedly reduced, accompanied by an increased input resistance (>200 M(Omega)). After 3 weeks of detachment, the input resistance increased further (>300 M(Omega)), and some cells displayed significantly depolarized membrane potentials (mean -69 +/- 18 mV). When PVR developed (in 20% of the cases) the inward K+ currents were virtually completely eliminated. The input resistance increased dramatically (>1000 MOmega), and almost all cells displayed strongly depolarized membrane potentials (-44 +/- 16 mV). CONCLUSIONS Reactive Müller cells are characterized by a severe reduction of their K+ inward conductance, accompanied by depolarized membrane potentials. These changes must impair physiological glial functions, such as neurotransmitter recycling and K+ ion clearance. Furthermore, the open probability of certain types of voltage-dependent ion channels (e.g., Ca2+-dependent K+ maxi channels) increases that may be a precondition for Müller cell proliferation, particularly in PVR when a dramatic downregulation of both inward current density and resting membrane potential occurs.
The Gender of Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes

The essay discusses how an analysis of the gendered practices of Brazilian transgendered prostitutes (travestis) can illuminate the ways in which gender in Latin America is bound up with sexuality. The article suggests that the particular configurations of sex, gender, and sexuality in Brazil and other Latin American societies differ importantly from the dominant configurations in northern Europe and North America and generate different arrangements of gender, consisting not of men and women, but of men and not-men.
Global Metabolomic Analyses of the Hemolymph and Brain during the Initiation, Maintenance, and Termination of Pupal Diapause in the Cotton Bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera

A strategy known as diapause (developmental arrest) has evolved in insects to increase their survival rate under harsh environmental conditions. Diapause causes a dramatic reduction in the metabolic rate and drastically extends lifespan. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying the metabolic changes involved. Using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, we compared the changes in the metabolite levels in the brain and hemolymph of nondiapause- and diapause-destined cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera, during the initiation, maintenance, and termination of pupal diapause. A total of 55 metabolites in the hemolymph and 52 metabolites in the brain were detected. Of these metabolites, 21 and 12 metabolite levels were altered in the diapause pupal hemolymph and brain, respectively. During diapause initiation and maintenance, the number of metabolites with increased levels in the hemolymph of the diapausing pupae is far greater than the number in the nondiapause pupae. These increased metabolites function as an energy source, metabolic intermediates, and cryoprotectants. The number of metabolites with decreased levels in the brain of diapausing pupae is far greater than the number in the nondiapause pupae. Low metabolite levels are likely to directly or indirectly repress the brain metabolic activity. During diapause termination, most of the metabolite levels in the hemolymph of the diapausing pupae rapidly decrease because they function as energy and metabolic sources that promote pupa-adult development. In conclusion, the metabolites with altered levels in the hemolymph and brain serve as energy and metabolic resources and help to maintain a low brain metabolic activity during diapause.
The Adventures of Lead Commander: An Environmental Education Program To Prevent Lead Poisoning in Young Children.

Abstract This study examined the effectiveness of a family-based environmental education program in lowering young children's exposure to lead and whether a lead-lowering intervention was associated with changes in behavioral functioning. Thirty preschool-age children were divided into treatment and comparison groups, with the treatment group given an environmental education program on preventing lead exposure. This prevention program included preschool materials/activities and parent/family materials/activities. Prior to treatment, and again 9 months later, both groups had hair analysis for lead levels and ratings of problem behavior. Posttest hair-lead levels and teacher and parent ratings of nonadaptive behavior were significantly lower for the treatment group than for the comparison group. Although limited by the modest sample size, the results suggest that lead exposure degrades behavioral performance in young children and that family-based environmental education programs can reduce young children's.
Reproductive status in broiler breeder males is minimally affected by a mid-cycle increase in photoperiod

1. Broiler breeder males were reared on 8-h photoperiods, transferred to 12 h at 20 weeks, and either maintained on 12 h or further transferred to 14, 16, 18, 20 or 22 h at 40 weeks to determine whether reproductive status and the timing of the onset of adult photorefractoriness is influenced by photoperiod during the breeding cycle. 2. No photoperiodic effect was observed on sperm concentration although the combination of large variation within a treatment and the lack of a semen sample from some males at each collection may have masked small differences and indicates that perhaps fertility in individual males fluctuates naturally during the breeding season. 3. The rate of comb growth to, and testicular weights at, 60 weeks were not significantly different between treatments. 4. Plasma testosterone concentration at 60 weeks of age declined linearly with photoperiod between 12 and 22 h, suggesting that in the birds exposed to the more stimulatory photoperiods after 40 weeks, hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal activity shut down earlier. 5. An increase in photoperiod at 40 weeks of age appears to advance the onset of photorefractoriness in male broiler breeders, evident from the decline in testosterone concentration with increasing photoperiod; it is however insufficient to affect sperm concentration or comb area.
Sex-, Diet-, and Cancer-Dependent Epistatic Effects on Complex Traits in Mice

The genetic basis of quantitative traits such as body weight and obesity is complex, with several hundred quantitative trait loci (QTLs) known to affect these and related traits in humans and mice. It also has become increasingly evident that the single-locus effects of these QTLs vary considerably depending on factors such as the sex of the individuals and their dietary environment, and we were interested to know whether this context-dependency also applies to two-locus epistatic effects of QTLs as well. We therefore conducted a genome scan to search for epistatic effects on 13 different weight and adiposity traits in an F2 population of mice (created from an original intercross of the FVB strain with M16i, a polygenic obesity model) that were fed either a control or a high-fat diet and half of which harbored a transgene (PyMT) that caused the development of metastatic mammary cancer. We used a conventional interval mapping approach with SNPs to scan all 19 autosomes, and found extensive epistasis affecting all of these traits. More importantly, we also discovered that the majority of these epistatic effects exhibited significant interactions with sex, diet, and/or presence of PyMT. Analysis of these interactions showed that many of them appeared to involve QTLs previously identified as affecting these traits, but whose single-locus effects were variously modified by two-locus epistatic effects of other QTLs depending on the sex, diet, or PyMT environment. It was concluded that this context-dependency of epistatic effects is an important component of the genetic architecture of complex traits such as those contributing to weight and obesity.
Constraining Multiple Grammars

Amaral and Roeper (this issue; henceforth A&R) present a theory about interlanguage representations that accommodates optionality as manifested in the parallel use of mutually conflicting rules within a single grammar. Multiple Grammars advances the claim that optionality is a constitutive characteristic of any one grammar, with interlanguage grammars being perhaps the clearest examples of a system that subsumes several different and often conflicting subgrammars made up of properties of the first language (L1), the target language and idiosyncratic rules. In this respect, the approach accords well with recent advances in psycholinguistic research on the multilingual lexicon that suggest that multilinguals accommodate words from different languages within one lexicon, with access to the multilingual lexicon being non-selective (for review, see Kroll et al., 2012). Similar proposals have been made for syntax in the shared syntax account (e.g. Hartsuiker and Pickering, 2008) where syntactic nodes are interconnected across languages within a single system. In this sense, the Multiple Grammars approach can be understood as extending non-selective lexical approaches to grammatical representations. Unlike these psycholinguistic models, however, the Multiple Grammars approach does not commit to any assumptions about language processing and how grammatical representations are accessed and selected in real-time production or comprehension. In fact, according to A&R, such processing considerations seem to be at best secondary in accounting for optionality in second language (L2) development. ‘[A]s far as the MG theory is concerned, any type of morphosyntactic variation is motivated by the (natural) existence of multiple sub-grammars in the speaker’s mind’ (pp. 36-37). A&R are certainly right in pointing out that where different grammatical representations are involved, a theory of interlanguage representation must give a coherent account of the nature of different coexisting grammatical representations within a single language
Influence of High School Size on Dropout Rate

The impact of high school size on dropout rate was investigated using the school data of the High School and Beyond Study of the National Center of Educational Statistics. Information from 744 public, comprehensive high schools was employed to test a model depicting a direct influence of school size on the diversity of academic offerings and on the school social climate, as well as an indirect effect on dropout rate. The findings indicated that potential links between school size and dropout rate were almost totally attributable to the social climate, particularly those elements dealing with student participation and the severity of the problem environment. These results imply that one outcome of school consolidations which seemingly has been given little attention is that it may increase early school leaving.
Exploring first year students' and their lecturers' constructions of what it means to read in a humanities discipline : a conflict of frames?

This article reports on a critical, ethnographic investigation into the reading practices of a group of 14 foundation year students at Rhodes University in 2002. The university had identified all the students as `underprepared' for university learning. They were from poor, socio-economic backgrounds, used English as an additional language, and had been educated in township or rural schools. Using the Socio-cultural model of literacy (Gee 1990; Street 1993), the study explored the culturally-shaped attitudes and assumptions about reading that the students brought with them into a tertiary learning context from their homes and schools. It reported on their subsequent efforts to become academic readers in a Humanities discipline. Framing Theory (Reid and MacLachlan 1994) was employed to analyse the kinds of mismatches that arose between the students' frames about the nature and purpose of reading, and those implicitly accepted as normative by their lecturers. It accounted for the students' difficulties in achieving epistemological access in terms of a conflict of frames: both the students and their teachers failed to recognise each others' constructions about the nature and purpose of `reading for a degree'. Whilst the lecturers had `Expressive' frames for reading, the students' reading frames were primarily `Cognitivist'. The paper concludes that both the students and the lecturers were `underprepared' for the learning and teaching tasks they undertook and recommends that a more `Socio-cultural' understanding of literacy would facilitate a rapprochement of frames. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol. 19 (4) 2005: pp.777-789