Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phylogeography and population structure of an ecotonal marsupial, Bettongia tropica, determined using mtDNA and microsatellites

The northern bettong, Bettongia tropica, is an endangered species of Potoroidae with a restricted distribution in the wet tropics of north Queensland, Australia. The species is only found within a thin strip of sclerophyll forest along the western margin of rainforest. This tight association with rainforest boundaries is predicted to have resulted in population isolation as rainforest contracted during the Pleistocene, though some have proposed that the northern bettong was not present in the wet tropics until the late Pleistocene. The dispersal ability of the species, and of the family, is not known. This study examined gene flow among populations within areas of continuous habitat complemented by a broader analysis of phylogeography. Individuals trapped at each of the four known regions (one region was subsampled at three different sites), were sequenced for 547 base pairs of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region and typed for seven microsatellite loci. The mtDNA phylogeny showed congruence with a biogeographical hypothesis, a relatively deep split suggesting historical isolation in separate northern and southern refugia. The two divergent clades were both present within the Lamb Range, indicating an expansion from these refuges and subsequent admixture at one site. mtDNA allele frequencies indicated relatively limited gene flow within the Lamb Range over distances as short as nine km. Tests of population divergence using microsatellites (FST and assignment tests) strongly supported this result. A molecular signal indicative of a recent bottleneck was unexpectedly detected in one of the Lamb Range subpopulations. This lead us to examine the behaviour of the statistics used in this bottleneck test under a linear stepping‐stone model with varying migration rates. We found that it may be more difficult to detect molecular signatures for recent bottlenecks under conditions of very low migration rates than for isolated populations and, conversely, that ‘false’ bottleneck signatures may be observed at higher migration rates. The Lamb Range FST estimate clearly fell within the category of potentially ‘false’ bottleneck signals. Despite relatively limited gene flow, evidence for asymmetric dispersal suggests more complicated population dynamics than a simple linear stepping‐stone model.
The relationship between the X-ray and radio components in the compact steep-spectrum quasar 3C 48

We combine results from ROSAT, Chandra, and multifrequency VLBA observations of the Compact Steep Spectrum quasar 3C 48 in an attempt to understand why the radio source is so small and unusual. The X-ray spectrum shows no evidence for the excess absorption which might have allowed us to conclude that 3C 48 is small because it is bottled up by cold neutral gas. We infer that the X-ray spectrum of the nucleus is made up of a soft, variable, steepspectrum component, and harder, power-law emission of slope consistent with the 1 GHz radio spectrum. The similarity of 3C 48’s X-ray to radio rati o to that seen in core-dominated radio-loud quasars leads us to examine the possibility that the harder X-ray emission is inverse Compton radiation from the radio source, which is more than 99 per cent resolved in our VLBA data. The weak (3�) evidence that we find for a proper motion of 0.5± 0.2c in a compact radio component about 0.05 arcsec from the core implies that if this component has a highly relativistic bulk motion, it is at a very small angle to the li ne of sight. However, stringent requirements on the jet opening angle make it unlikely that all the X-ray emission is from a fast jet which sees boosted Cosmic Microwave Background emission and emits beamed X-rays in the observer’s frame. If the unusual radio structu res are intrinsically one-sided and unbeamed, the inverse Compton mechanism can provide an appreciable fraction of the X-ray emission if the magnetic field strength is a factor of six to te n below that which gives equal energy in radiating relativistic particles and magnetic fie lds and roughly minimizes the total energy in the source. It remains possible that the unresolve d X-ray emission arises from close to the central engine, either as an embedded blazar or associated with the accretion processes.
Tuft Calcium Spikes in Accessory Olfactory Bulb Mitral Cells

The mammalian accessory olfactory system is critical for the detection and identification of pheromones and the representation of complex stimuli including sex, genetic relatedness, and individual identity. Mitral cells, the principal cells of the accessory olfactory bulb (AOB), receive monosynaptic input from the sensory periphery and already show highly specific response properties, firing selectively for combinations of genetic markers and gender-specific cues. Vomeronasal sensory neuron axons form synapses onto distal tuft-like branches of mitral cell primary dendrites. We have studied dendritic excitability and synaptic integration in AOB mitral cell dendrites, and we show that dendrites of accessory olfactory bulb mitral cells support action potential propagation and can fire regenerative spike-like events that are likely to contribute to the integration of inputs to these cells. These tuft spikes may be important for the specificity of AOB mitral cell responses.
Power and robustness of linkage tests for quantitative traits in general pedigrees

There are numerous statistical methods for quantitative trait linkage analysis in human studies. An ideal such method would have high power to detect genetic loci contributing to the trait, would be robust to non‐normality in the phenotype distribution, would be appropriate for general pedigrees, would allow the incorporation of environmental covariates, and would be appropriate in the presence of selective sampling. We recently described a general framework for quantitative trait linkage analysis, based on generalized estimating equations, for which many current methods are special cases. This procedure is appropriate for general pedigrees and easily accommodates environmental covariates. In this report, we use computer simulations to investigate the power and robustness of a variety of linkage test statistics built upon our general framework. We also propose two novel test statistics that take account of higher moments of the phenotype distribution, in order to accommodate non‐normality. These new linkage tests are shown to have high power and to be robust to non‐normality. While we have not yet examined the performance of our procedures in the context of selective sampling via computer simulations, the proposed tests satisfy all of the other qualities of an ideal quantitative trait linkage analysis method. Genet. Epidemiol. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Narrow-Leafed Lupin (Lupinus angustifolius) β1- and β6-Conglutin Proteins Exhibit Antifungal Activity, Protecting Plants against Necrotrophic Pathogen Induced Damage from Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and Phytophthora nicotianae

Vicilins (7S globulins) are seed storage proteins and constitute the main protein family in legume seeds, particularly in narrow-leafed lupin (Lupinus angustifolius L.; NLL), where seven vicilin genes, called β1- to β7-conglutin have been identified. Vicilins are involved in germination processes supplying amino acids for seedling growth and plant development, as well as in some cases roles in plant defense and protection against pathogens. The roles of NLL β-conglutins in plant defense are unknown. Here the potential role of five NLL β-conglutin family members in protection against necrotrophic fungal pathogens was investigated and it was demonstrated that recombinant purified 6xHis-tagged β1- and β6-conglutin proteins exhibited the strongest in vitro growth inhibitory activity against a range of necrotrophic fungal pathogens compared to β2, β3, and β4 conglutins. To examine activity in vivo, two representative necrotrophic pathogens, the fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum and oomycete Phytophthora nicotianae were used. Transient expression of β1- and β6-conglutin proteins in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves demonstrated in vivo growth suppression of both of these pathogens, resulting in low percentages of hyphal growth and elongation in comparison to control treated leaves. Cellular studies using β1- and β6-GFP fusion proteins showed these conglutins localized to the cell surface including plasmodesmata. Analysis of cellular death following S. sclerotiorum or P. nicotianae revealed both β1- and β6-conglutins suppressed pathogen induced cell death in planta and prevented pathogen induced suppression of the plant oxidative burst as determined by protein oxidation in infected compared to mock-inoculated leaves.
Field assessment of wood stake decomposition in forest soil

Abstract A pulse-echo acoustic method was investigated for evaluating wood stake decomposition in the field. A total of 58 wood stakes (29 loblolly pine, Pinus taeda, and 29 aspen, Populus tremuloides) that were vertically installed (full length) in forest soils were non-destructively tested by means of a laboratory-type acoustic measurement system. The same acoustic measurements were also conducted on the wood stakes after they were removed from the soil. Compression (parallel to grain) tests were then performed on the stakes in the laboratory to obtain residual elastic and strength properties. The results indicate that the pulse-echo acoustic method is a good approach to characterize wood stakes that are fully inserted into mineral soils. Statistical analysis showed good relationships between acoustic parameters (number of pulse echoes and in-ground acoustic velocity) and percentage weight loss, modulus of elasticity in compression, and residual compressive strength. The pulse-echo acoustic method could be used as a monitoring tool to assess progressive levels of wood stake decomposition in forest soil.
Aging Adult Children with Developmental Disabilities and Their Families

The purpose of this article was to review the literature about families of adult children with developmental disabilities, the impact of culture on access to health care services, and community-based health care services for adults with developmental disabilities to answer the following questions: (1) How do parents of adult children with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities describe their caregiving experiences? , (2) What are frequently identified unmet service needs by the parents/families? , (3) Does the family's culture or ethnic background influence how they view their caregiving experiences? , and (4) What are the unique challenges facing families when attempting to access health care services? Currently little information exists about the needs of parents and other family members who live with adults with developmental disabilities. Longitudinal studies and studies to assess the influence of culture on care giving are especially needed. Therapists need to use approaches that will empower children and their families so they can better meet their current challenges and provide a foundation for the skills they willneed to meet future challenges as adults.
Resistance to Chemotherapy Is Associated with Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptor 4 Up-Regulation

Purpose: Establishment of antiapoptotic signaling pathways in tumor cells is a major cause for the failure of chemotherapy against cancer. To investigate the underlying mechanisms, we developed an experimental approach that is based on the genetic plasticity of cancer cells and the selection for cell survival on treatment with chemotherapeutic agents. Experimental Design: Gene expression changes of surviving cell clones were analyzed by macroarrays. Involvement of fibroblast growth factor receptor 4 (FGFR4) in antiapoptotic pathways was elucidated by apoptosis assays, small interfering RNA experiments, and an antagonistic antibody. Results: We show that FGFR4 gene expression is up-regulated in doxorubicin-treated, apoptosis-resistant cancer cell clones. Ectopic expression of FGFR4 in cancer cells led to reduced apoptosis sensitivity on treatment with doxorubicin or cyclophosphamide, whereas knockdown of endogenous FGFR4 expression in breast cancer cell lines had the opposite effect. FGFR4 overexpression resulted in Bcl-xl up-regulation at both mRNA and protein levels. Knockdown of FGFR4 expression by small interfering RNA caused a decrease in phospho-extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 levels and reduced Bcl-xl expression. Moreover, an antagonistic FGFR4 antibody suppressed the resistance of cancer cells with endogenous FGFR4 expression against apoptosis-inducing chemotherapeutic agents. Conclusion: Based on these findings, we propose an antiapoptotic signaling pathway that is initiated by FGFR4 and regulating the expression of Bcl-xl through the mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade. Our findings are exemplary for a novel strategy toward the elucidation of diverse signaling pathways that define antiapoptotic potential in cancer cells. These observations open new avenues toward the diagnosis of chemoresistant tumors and therapies targeting FGFR4-overexpressing cancers.
The Impact of Viral Respiratory Infection on the Severity and Recovery From an Asthma Exacerbation

Background: Viral respiratory illness triggers asthma exacerbations, but the influence of respiratory illness on the acute severity and recovery of childhood asthma is unknown. Our objective was to evaluate the impact of a concurrent acute respiratory illness (based on a clinical definition and PCR detection of a panel of respiratory viruses, Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Chlamydia pneumoniae) on the severity and resolution of symptoms in children with a nonhospitalized exacerbation of asthma. Methods: Subjects were children aged 2 to 15 years presenting to an emergency department for an acute asthma exacerbation and not hospitalized. Acute respiratory illness (ARI) was clinically defined. Nasopharyngeal aspirates (NPA) were examined for respiratory viruses, Chlamydia and Mycoplasma using PCR. The primary outcome was quality of life (QOL) on presentation, day 7 and day 14. Secondary outcomes were acute asthma severity score, asthma diary, and cough diary scores on days 5, 7, 10, and 14. Results: On multivariate regression, presence of ARI was statistically but not clinically significantly associated with QOL score on presentation (B = −0.36, P = 0.025). By day 7 and 14, there was no difference between groups. Asthma diary score was significantly higher in children with ARI (B = 0.41, P = 0.039) on day 5 but not on presentation or subsequent days. Respiratory viruses were detected in 54% of the 78 NPAs obtained. There was no difference in the any of the asthma outcomes of children grouped by positive or negative NPA. Conclusions: The presence of a viral respiratory illness has a modest influence on asthma severity, and does not influence recovery from a nonhospitalized asthma exacerbation.
“Diet Pills” and Major Depression in the Canadian Population

Objective: To evaluate epidemiological associations between self-reported diet pill consumption and major depressive episodes (MDEs), using data from a large-scale, cross-sectional survey of the Canadian population. Methods: Data from the National Population Health Survey (NPHS) were used in this analysis. The NPHS interview included a brief version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) depression section, known as the CIDI Short Form for Major Depression (CIDI-SFMD), as well as provision for self-reported medication use. Results: Approximately 0.5% of the population reported the use of diet pills. Diet pill use was more common among women than among men. At the time of data collection (1996–1997), the most commonly used medication was fenfluramine (since withdrawn from the market because of cardiovascular toxicity). The use of these medications was strongly associated with MDE: the annual prevalence among persons reporting use was 17.1% (95%CI, 8.6 to 25.6), approximately 4 times the underlying population rate. Conclusions: Because the NPHS was a general health survey, and because self-reported exposure to these medications was relatively uncommon, the data did not permit a detailed multivariate analysis. These findings, however, indicate that depressive psychopathology is strongly associated with the use of appetite-suppressant medications.
Spatial and Temporal Properties of Cone Signals in Alert Macaque Primary Visual Cortex

Neurons in the lateral geniculate nucleus cannot perform the spatial color calculations necessary for color contrast and color constancy. Under neutral-adapting conditions, we mapped the cone inputs (L, M, and S) to 83 cone-opponent cells representing the central visual field of the next stage of visual processing, primary visual cortex (V1), to determine how the color signals are spatially transformed. Cone-opponent cells, constituting ∼10% of V1 cells, formed two populations, red–green (L vs M; 66 of 83) and blue–yellow (S vs L+M; 17 of 83). Many cone-opponent cells (48 of 83) were double-opponent, with circular receptive-field centers and crescent-shaped surrounds (0.63° offset) that had opposite chromatic tuning to the centers and a time-to-peak 11 ms later than the centers. The remaining cone-opponent cells were either spatially opponent in only one cone system (20 of 83) or lacked spatial opponency (15 of 83). Cells lacking spatial opponency had smaller receptive fields (0.5–0.7°) than spatial-opponent cell centers (∼1°). We found that red–green cells received S-cone input, which aligned with M input, and, unlike blue–yellow cells, red–green cells gave push–pull responses: receptive-field centers of red-ON cells were excited by both L increments (bright red) and M decrements (dark red) and were suppressed by both L decrements (dark green) and M increments (bright green). Excitatory responses to decrements were slightly larger than to increments, which may account for the lower detection and discrimination thresholds of decrements shown psychophysically. By virtue of their specialized receptive fields, the neurons described here spatially transform the cone signals and represent the first stage in the visual system at which spatially opponent color calculations are made.
A Banach-Stone theorem for Riesz isomorphisms of Banach lattices

Let X and Y be compact Hausdorff spaces, and E, F be Banach lattices. Let C(X, E) denote the Banach lattice of all continuous E-valued functions on X equipped with the pointwise ordering and the sup norm. We prove that if there exists a Riesz isomorphism$: C(X, E) -» C(Y, F) such that Of is non-vanishing on Y if and only if f is non-vanishing on X, then X is homeomorphic to Y, and E is Riesz isomorphic to F. In this case,O can be written as a weighted composition operator:Of(y) = II(y)(f(φ(y))), where φ is a homeomorphism from Y onto X, and π(y) is a Riesz isomorphism from E onto F for every y in Y. This generalizes some known results obtained recently.
Clinical trials registration in India: no longer a dream.

The prospective registration of clinical trials is no longer a dream in many parts of the world. Editorial initiatives such as the position taken by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) that precludes the publication of reports of clinical trials that had not been previously registered in approved clinical trial registers paved the way for this collective endeavour. Efforts by the international community and its representative organisations such as the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP) 2 helped decide elements that would be disclosed at registration (the 20-item dataset), initiate dialogue among stakeholders for overcoming perceived barriers to disclosure of sensitive trial elements, provide a search portal that would link approved clinical trial registers (http://www.who.int/ictrp/search/en/), and will help guide the reporting of clinical trial results. Periodic audits of the process and contents of prospective registration by registries themselves led to a dramatic improvement in compliance with registration requirements. Numerous articles in the lay and scientific press stressing the importance for public good over concerns of competitive disadvantage advanced by those with commercial interests helped shape public and scientific opinion. Efforts from within the pharmaceutical industry also contributed to the process. Legislation left no room for reluctance to be transparent in some parts of the world. Registration of the ICMJE and WHO’s 20-item dataset is now an essential part of the process of initiating clinical trials worldwide. Interest has now shifted to issues related to making trial results publically available.
The facilitative effects of drawing and gesturing on word retrieval for people with aphasia

The facilitative effects of drawing and gesturing on word retrieval for people with aphasia. " MA (Master of Arts) thesis, has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the Master of Arts degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology at the May 2015 graduation. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to Dr. Jean K. Gordon for her guidance with this project and the members of the Language in Aging and Aphasia laboratory at the University of Iowa for their ongoing support. ABSTRACT In order to verbally communicate successfully, people need the ability to retrieve a desired word. However, the inability to do this, called " anomia, " is a common impairment for people with aphasia, and frequently persists into the chronic stage of recovery. Strategies that facilitate verbal expression may reduce or compensate for instances of anomia. Verbal strategies, such as Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA) have been researched extensively and shown to be effective. Nonverbal strategies, such as drawing and gesture, have research on their effects as a substitution for verbalization, but less on their facilitative effects. However, the research suggests they may work in a similar manner to verbal approaches, by activating semantic networks. Thus, the facilitative effects of nonverbal strategies should be explored further. The aim of this experiment was to determine the facilitative effects of drawing and gesturing during a picture naming task in one participant with chronic aphasia. Results revealed that all conditions evaluated, drawing, gesture, and wait (control), produced improvements in the picture naming task. However, contrary to expectations, the facilitated conditions (i.e. drawing and gesture) did not create more effects than the unfacilitated condition (i.e. wait). This finding may indicate the benefits of a factor common to all conditions. Further results of this study and directions for future research are discussed. iv PUBLIC ABSTRACT The inability to retrieve words while talking, referred to as " anomia " , is a common impairment in individuals with aphasia, a language impairment resulting from a stroke. Even when other language deficits resolve, anomia often persists. When anomia occurs frequently, it significantly impairs a person's ability to efficiently and effectively communicate his or her basic wants and needs, as well as independently participate in social activities. Research is needed to identify effective ways to reduce instances of anomia and thus increase a person's ability to communicate successfully. It has been suggested that drawing may increase a person's ability …
The comparison of burden between caregiving spouses of depressive and demented patients

The opportunities for a depressive or demented elderly patient to live at home are dependent on the availability of support. If the spouse is alive, her or his resources to care for the patient are an essential option. In this study we compared the burden of the spouses of depressive and demented elderly patients admitted to the University Psychogeriatric Clinic.