Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Salivary Melatonin in Relation to Depressive Symptom Severity in Young Adults

Reduced levels of melatonin have been associated with severe depression. The aim was to investigate the correlation between salivary melatonin and dimensional measures of depressive symptom severity in young adult psychiatric patients. Levels of melatonin were analyzed in six saliva samples during waking hours from 119 young adult patients under outpatient psychiatric care. Melatonin levels were tested for association with the severity of depressive symptoms using the self-rating version of the Montgomery Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS-S). Where possible, depressive symptoms were assessed again after 6±2 months of treatment. Response was defined as decrease in MADRS-S by ≥50% between baseline and follow-up. Patients with levels of melatonin in the lowest quartile at bedtime had an increased probability of a high MADRS-S score compared to those with the highest levels of melatonin (odds ratio 1.39, 95% CI 1.15–1.69, p<0.01). A post hoc regression analysis found that bedtime melatonin levels predicted response (odds ratio 4.4, 95% CI 1.06–18.43, p<0.05). A negative relationship between salivary melatonin and dimensional measures of depressive symptom severity was found in young patients under outpatient psychiatric care. Bedtime salivary melatonin levels may have prognostic implications.
Parvalbumin-containing GABA cells and schizophrenia: experimental model based on targeted gene delivery through adeno-associated viruses

Understanding the contribution of transmitter systems in behavioural pharmacology has a long tradition. Multiple techniques such as transmitter-specific lesions, and also localized administration of pharmacological toxins including agonists and antagonists of selected receptors have been applied. More recently, modern genetic tools have permitted cell-type selective interferences, for example by expression of light-sensitive channels followed by optogenetic stimulation in behaviourally meaningful settings or by engineered channels termed DREADDS that respond to peripherally administered drugs. We here took a similar approach and employed a Cre recombinase-dependent viral delivery system (adeno-associated virus) to express tetanus toxin light chain (TeLc) and thus, block neural transmission specifically in parvalbumin-positive (PV+) neurons of the limbic and infralimbic prefrontal circuitry. PV-TeLc cohorts presented with normal circadian activity as recorded in PhenoTyper home cages, but a reproducible increase in anxiety was extracted in both the open field and light–dark box. Interestingly, working memory assessed in a spontaneous alternation Y-maze task was impaired in PV-TeLc mice. We also recorded local field potentials from a separate cohort and found no global changes in brain activity, but found a behaviourally relevant lack of modulation in the gamma spectral band. These anomalies are reminiscent of endophenotypes of schizophrenia and appear to be critically dependent on GABAergic signalling through PV neurones. At the same time, these observations validate the use of viral vector delivery and its expression in Cre-lines as a useful tool for understanding the role of selective components of the brain in behaviour and the underpinning physiology.
Biodegradation of Crude Oil by an Artificial Microalgal-Bacterial Consortium

The extensive use of petroleum and petroleum products leads to serious oil contamination of the environment, thus considerable interests were taken in microbial degradation and detoxification of these pollutants. Microalgae play an important role in the environmental cleaning of pollutants. Microalgae provide O2 to aerobic bacteria to mineralize pollutants and then take-up the released CO2 [1]. Furthermore, microalgae can help in co-metabolic degradation or produce biosurfactants and extracellular matters to enhance bacterial activity for increasing pollutant bioavailability [2]. Additionally, microalgae can accumulate hydrocarbons, and subsequently make those compounds available to the associated hydrocarbon-utilizing bacteria [3]. The cooperation of phototrophic microalgae and heterotrophic bacteria could potentially improve the degradation of environmental contaminants including oil pollutants [4,5].
Socioeconomic Factors and Substandard Parenting

This article uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to estimate the independent and interactive effects of income, family structure, and maternal work on measures of substandard parenting. Results from child fixed‐effects analyses suggest that children in mother‐partner families are more likely to be exposed to substandard parenting than children in mother‐father families. However, income plays a particularly strong protective role in regard to substandard parenting in mother‐partner families, such that parenting improves as income rises. Increases in maternal work hours are associated with increases in substandard parenting for children in single‐mother families.
Impact of the Debt Ratio on Firm Investment: A case study of listed companies in China

In this paper, we analyze whether the total debt ratios and bank loan ratios of Chinese listed companies had any impact on their fixed investment in 2001-2006, and whether this impact, if it existed, differed among companies with differing investment opportunities. Our results are as follows. First, our analysis reveals that the total debt ratio (bank loan ratio) did have a negative impact on fixed investment among Chinese listed companies. Secondly, the total debt ratio (bank loan ratio) had a stronger negative impact on low-growth companies than on high-growth companies, implying that the total debt ratio (bank loan ratio) actually restrained companies from overinvestment. Finally, the analysis led to the interesting result that the bank loan ratio had a stronger impact on fixed investment than the total debt ratio, and actually had the strong effect of restraining investment particularly by low-growth companies, implying that in China, banks supervise the investment activities of companies more strongly than other creditors.
Monoclonal Antibody PD 41 Recognizes an Antigen Restricted to Prostate Adenocarcinomas 1

A monoclonal antibody (MAb) designated PD41 (IgGlk) was gener ated by hyperimmunizing BALB/c mice with a membrane preparation prepared from a moderately to poorly differentiated prostate carcinoma surgical specimen. The immunohistochemical reactivity of MAb IMMl was shown to be highly restricted to the ductal epithelia and secretions of prostate adenocarcinoma tissues. Sixty-five % of the prostate tumor specimens were stained with MAb PD41, whereas no staining of the fetal or benign prostate specimens was observed. PD41 reacted minimally with normal prostate tissues, with less than 1% of the epithelial cells staining. This MAb did not react with nonprostate carcinomas or to a variety of normal human tissues. Using both radioimmunoassay and immunofluorescent procedures, several cultured human tumor cell lines, human blood cells, and purified antigens to prostate-specific antigen and prostatic acid phosphatase also were found not to express the PD41 antigen. MAb PD41 also was shown to bind to the target antigen present in seminal plasma obtained from prostate carcinoma patients but not to seminal plasma from normal donors. Immunoblots of gel-separated com ponents of prostate carcinoma tissue extracts indicate that the molecular weight of the proteins carrying the PD41 antigenic determinant can differ among individual tumors, ranging from M, 90,000 to >400,000. However, in seminal plasma from prostate cancer patients, the predominant com ponent recognized by PD41 is the diffuse M, >400,000 band. It appears that this monoclonal antibody may recognize a prostate carcinomaassociated mucin-like antigen, which is preferentially expressed on pros tate carcinomas, and therefore, may be a useful marker to distinguish benign prostate hyperplasia from prostate carcinoma.
The immunity‐related GTPase Irgm3 relieves endoplasmic reticulum stress response during coxsackievirus B3 infection via a PI3K/Akt dependent pathway

The IRG protein Irgm3 preserves cell survival during coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3) infection. However, the molecular mechanisms are not clear. Here, we examined the effect of Irgm3 expression on ER stress triggered by pharmacological agents or CVB3 infection. In Tet‐On/Irgm3 HeLa cells, Irgm3 expression suppressed either chemical‐ or CVB3‐induced upregulation of glucose‐regulated protein 78. Further, Irgm3 strongly inhibited the activation of both the PERK and ATF6 pathways of ER stress responses, which further led to the diminished phosphorylation of eIF2α, reduced cleavage/activation of transcription factor SREBP1 and attenuated induction of proapoptotic genes CHOP and GADD34. These data were further supported by experiments using Irgm3 knockout mouse embryonic fibroblasts, in which the ER stress induced by CVB3 was not relieved due to the lack of Irgm3 expression. In addition, the tunicamycin‐triggered ER stress promoted the subsequent CVB3 infection. The effect of Irgm3 on ER stress and CVB3 infection was diminished by the PI3K inhibitor, LY294002, while inhibitors of ERK, JNK and p38 had no effect. These data were further corroborated by transfection of cells with a dominant negative Akt. Taken together, these data suggest that Irgm3 relieves the ER stress response via a PI3K/Akt dependent mechanism, which contributes to host defence against CVB3 infection.
Replication of the Relationship between Dogmatism and Locus of Control

The relationship between Dogmatism and three subscales of Levenson's Locus of Control measure was examined with 36 female undergraduates as subjects. Results supported the hypothesis that internality, across all three domains of the Locus of Control construct, is related to a cognitively differentiated personality structure as measured by the Dogmatism scale.
Dimensionality Reduction of Multimodal Labeled Data by Local Fisher Discriminant Analysis

Reducing the dimensionality of data without losing intrinsic information is an important preprocessing step in high-dimensional data analysis. Fisher discriminant analysis (FDA) is a traditional technique for supervised dimensionality reduction, but it tends to give undesired results if samples in a class are multimodal. An unsupervised dimensionality reduction method called locality-preserving projection (LPP) can work well with multimodal data due to its locality preserving property. However, since LPP does not take the label information into account, it is not necessarily useful in supervised learning scenarios. In this paper, we propose a new linear supervised dimensionality reduction method called local Fisher discriminant analysis (LFDA), which effectively combines the ideas of FDA and LPP. LFDA has an analytic form of the embedding transformation and the solution can be easily computed just by solving a generalized eigenvalue problem. We demonstrate the practical usefulness and high scalability of the LFDA method in data visualization and classification tasks through extensive simulation studies. We also show that LFDA can be extended to non-linear dimensionality reduction scenarios by applying the kernel trick.
An Evaluation of an Intervention Using Sign Language and Multi-Sensory Coding to Support Word Learning and Reading Comprehension of Deaf Signing Children.

The reading skills of many deaf children lag several years behind those of hearing children, and there is a need for identifying reading difficulties and implementing effective reading support strategies in this population. This study embraces a balanced reading approach, and investigates the efficacy of applying multi-sensory coding strategies and reading scaffolding to facilitate elementary phase deaf readers’ reading development. Sign language – in combination with multiple visual, tactile and kinaesthetic coding strategies and reading scaffolding techniques – was used to facilitate literacy and vocabulary development. Participants were 64 children, diagnosed with severe to profound bilateral hearing loss and aged from 6;03 to 11;08 years (mean age 9.37 years). Participants were randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group. There were no significant differences between the groups pre-intervention on measures of sight word fluency, word recognition, receptive and expressive vocabulary knowle.
An Adaptive Quality of Service Aware Middleware for Replicated Services

A dependable middleware should be able to adaptively share the distributed resources it manages in order to meet diverse application requirements, even when the quality of service (QoS) is degraded due to uncertain variations in load and unanticipated failures. We have addressed this issue in the context of a dependable middleware that adaptively manages replicated servers to deliver a timely and consistent response to time-sensitive client applications. These applications have specific temporal and consistency requirements, and can tolerate a certain degree of relaxed consistency in exchange for better response time. We propose a flexible QoS model that allows clients to specify their timeliness and consistency constraints. We also propose an adaptive framework that dynamically selects replicas to service a client's request based on the prediction made by probabilistic models. These models use the feedback from online performance monitoring of the replicas to provide probabilistic guarantees for meeting a client's QoS specification. The experimental results we have obtained demonstrate the role of feedback and the efficacy of simple analytical models for adaptively sharing the available replicas among the users under different workload scenarios.
Categorizing Ideas about Trees: A Tree of Trees

The aim of this study is to explore whether matrices and MP trees used to produce systematic categories of organisms could be useful to produce categories of ideas in history of science. We study the history of the use of trees in systematics to represent the diversity of life from 1766 to 1991. We apply to those ideas a method inspired from coding homologous parts of organisms. We discretize conceptual parts of ideas, writings and drawings about trees contained in 41 main writings; we detect shared parts among authors and code them into a 91-characters matrix and use a tree representation to show who shares what with whom. In other words, we propose a hierarchical representation of the shared ideas about trees among authors: this produces a “tree of trees. ” Then, we categorize schools of tree-representations. Classical schools like “cladists” and “pheneticists” are recovered but others are not: “gradists” are separated into two blocks, one of them being called here “grade theoreticians. ” We propose new interesting categories like the “buffonian school,” the “metaphoricians,” and those using “strictly genealogical classifications. ” We consider that networks are not useful to represent shared ideas at the present step of the study. A cladogram is made for showing who is sharing what with whom, but also heterobathmy and homoplasy of characters. The present cladogram is not modelling processes of transmission of ideas about trees, and here it is mostly used to test for proximity of ideas of the same age and for categorization.
Quasistatic and continuous dynamic characterization of the mechanical properties of silk from the cobweb of the black widow spider Latrodectus hesperus

SUMMARY Spider silks are among the strongest and toughest known materials, but investigation of these remarkable properties has been confined largely to orb-weaving spiders. We investigated the mechanical performance of silk from the cobweb-weaving spider Latrodectus hesperus. Both silk from the scaffolding region of the web and sticky gumfooted capture lines had material properties similar to the major ampullate silk that orb weavers use as the framework for their orb webs. Major ampullate fibers obtained from anaesthetized Latrodectus spiders were similar, but exhibited increased stiffness and reduced extensibility. Novel continuous dynamic analysis of the silks revealed that the loss tangent (tanδ) increased rapidly during the first 2-3% of extension and reached a maximum near the yield point of fibers. The loss tangent then rapidly declined at an ever-decreasing rate until failure. We suggest that these data support molecular models for the mechanics of spider silk. We also demonstrate that the addition of sticky aggregate glue to the ends of the gumfooted lines modulates their mechanical performance - reducing stiffness and increasing extensibility. The storage modulus of viscid regions of the gumfooted lines was much lower than dry regions. This may be explained by disruption of hydrogen bonding within the amorphous regions of the fibers due to hydration from the glue.
To defy or not to defy: An experimental study of the dynamics of disobedience and whistle-blowing

This study introduces a new paradigm for investigating the dynamic processes of disobedience between individuals and unjust authority. Our experimental setting allowed participants (n = 149) to deal with an unethical request by the experimenter with options of (dis)obeying or “blowing the whistle”. Results revealed that the majority (77%) complied while the minority was split between those refusing (14%) and those reporting the misconduct to higher authorities (9%). No significant differences were found in personal characteristics and dispositional variables distinguishing between obedient, disobedient, and whistleblower participants. An independent sample (n = 138), when asked to predict their behavior, gave exactly the opposite reaction to our experimental participants: Only 4% believed they would obey that authority.
Developing Listening Skills for Tertiary Level Learners

Although ELT in Bangladesh is moving away from the traditional grammar translation approach towards a CLT framework, we still do not give emphasis to all four skills which is recommended in the communicative approach. As listening remains a neglected skill the writers argue for the need to incorporate this skill at the tertiary level in order to improve communicative competence and in particular proficiency in Academic English. The article first discusses the theoretical overview for teaching listening including listening for academic purposes. Then it presents practical and effective tasks and materials that are appropriate for the Bangladeshi university context and will develop students' proficiency in Academic English. DOI: 10.3329/dujl.v2i3. 4141 The Dhaka University Journal of Linguistics : Vol.2 No.3 February, 2009 Page: 19-52
Morphological Structures in Visual Word Recognition: The Case of Arabic.

This research examined the function within lexical access of the main morphemic units from which most Arabic words are assembled, namely roots and word patterns. The present study focused on the derivation of nouns, in particular, whether the lexical representation of Arabic words reflects their morphological structure and whether recognition of a word involves recognition of its morphological constituents. The morphology of Arabic language constitutes two main systems: inflectional morphology and derivational morphology. Inflectional morphology is used to express grammatical relations and derivational morphology deals with the formation of new words in language; it contains two types of word patterns: verbal and nominal. In this study, it was assumed that roots are lexical entities that can facilitate lexical access to a large cluster of words that derive from them, whereas word patterns are not lexical entities and have no role in access to words assembled by them. The lexical representations of the main morphemic units were examined in four experiments using skilled readers applying masked priming technique tasks: lexical decision and naming. The results indicated that previous exposure to a word sharing the same word pattern had no marked facilitating effect on lexical decision or on naming. The main conclusion of this study on the morphology of Arabic is that roots and word patterns have no essential role in word organisation in the mental lexicon. In addition, words in nominal pattern in derivational morphology are represented in their whole shape in the mental lexicon and each word has an independent representation.
The Social Cohesion Role of Educational Organizations: Primary and Secondary Schools

Schools have long been recognized as key institutions affecting social cohesion. Schools foster or retard student tolerance, respect for diverse others, and sense of overarching common identity and values. They prepare citizens with the knowledge and skills needed to participate effectively in a democracy. Schools themselves are an object of democratic participation. Thus, schools affect social cohesion both through their affect on students and through their conduct as societal institutions. This article reviews a variety of means by which schools can either promote or erode social cohesion.
Gift‐giving among adolescents: exploring motives, the effects of givers' personal characteristics and the use of impression management tactics

Purpose – Previous research on impression management explored motives, the use of impression management tactics and the influence of personality characteristics on the tendency to engage in impression management. The purposes of this research are to examine gift‐giving behavior among adolescents based on the building blocks of impression management theory, the ways that personality characteristics motivate gift‐givers to engage in active and defensive impression management and how the use of impression management tactics (i.e. similarity‐conformity and target‐enhancement) are reflected in their gift‐giving behavior.Design/methodology/approach – A convenience sample of 141 adolescences was used in a quantitative study. Self‐report questionnaires were distributed to adolescents of different ages (13‐16), with students from diverse social strata. Students were asked to recall a recent peer gift‐giving experience and to refer to it when answering the questions which covered motives for gift‐giving, personalit.
The Logistical File System : A Network File System Designed for Scalable Resource Shar ing

This paper describes the technologies and design ideas that underlie the Logistical File Systems (LoFS). LoFS is close to a traditional distributed file system in structure and in the class of operations it supports, but it is designed to preserve the easy deployability and scalability across the administrative boundaries that have been the pillars of the Web’s success. The leading idea behind the design of LoFS is that in order to implement a real file system that nonetheless preserves the strengths of the Internet of model resource sharing, one has to apply that model to the storage resources needed to implement file system operations, so that they are exposed and shareable to the global network. Systems that do not expose the underlying resources used to implement file system operations can implement remote access to file system operations, but they cannot distribute many important functions of the file system itself.