Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Establishment of regions of genomic activity during the Drosophila maternal to zygotic transition

A conspicuous feature of early animal development is the lack of transcription from the embryonic genome, and it typically takes several hours to several days (depending on the species) until widespread transcription of the embryonic genome begins. Although this transition is ubiquitous, relatively little is known about how the shift from a transcriptionally quiescent to transcriptionally active genome is controlled. We describe here the genome-wide distributions and temporal dynamics of nucleosomes and post-translational histone modifications through the maternal-to-zygotic transition in embryos of the pomace fly Drosophila melanogaster. At mitotic cycle 8, when few zygotic genes are being transcribed, embryonic chromatin is in a relatively simple state: there are few nucleosome free regions, undetectable levels of the histone methylation marks characteristic of mature chromatin, and low levels of histone acetylation at a relatively small number of loci. Histone acetylation increases by cycle 11, but it is not until cycle 13 that nucleosome free regions and domains of histone methylation become widespread. Early histone acetylation is strongly associated with regions that we have previously shown are bound in early embryos by the maternally deposited transcription factor Zelda. Most of these Zelda-bound regions are destined to be enhancers or promoters active during mitotic cycle 14, and our data demonstrate that they are biochemically distinct long before they become active, raising the possibility that Zelda triggers a cascade of events, including the accumulation of specific histone modifications, that plays a role in the subsequent activation of these sequences. Many of these Zelda-associated active regions occur in larger domains that we find strongly enriched for histone marks characteristic of Polycomb-mediated repression, suggesting a dynamic balance between Zelda activation and Polycomb repression. Collectively, these data paint a complex picture of a genome in transition from a quiescent to an active state, and highlight the role of Zelda in mediating this transition.
Estrategias de aprendizaje autónomo en la comprensión lectora de estudiantes de secundaria

Al observar en las aulas de clase del nivel secundaria, así como del nivel superior la forma como los adolescentes y jóvenes estudian, surgió la idea de conocer si cuentan con estrategias para el aprendizaje independiente y de si esta variable explicaba en alguna medida un problema crítico en el Perú: la comprensión lectora. Es por ello, que se planteó como propósito del estudio, conocer si las estrategias de aprendizaje autónomo, sus dimensiones e indicadores tienen algún poder explicativo sobre la comprensión lectora. Bajo un diseño correlacional causal de carácter exploratorio, se aplicaron los siguientes instrumentos: Cuestionario de estrategias de trabajo autónomo (CETA) que evalúa las estrategias de ampliación, colaboración, conceptualización, planificación, preparación de exámenes y participación y prueba PECL 2 para medir niveles de comprensión de la lectura: literal, inferencial y criterial en un grupo de 144 estudiantes de IE de los distritos de Majes en Arequipa y Villa Rica en Pasco. Entre los resultados más importantes se obtuvo que el 79.33% de estudiantes alcanzaron un nivel en proceso en cuanto al uso de estrategias de aprendizaje autónomo y el 62.7% alcanzó el mismo nivel en la comprensión lectora; así mismo, se halló que el 34.4% de la variable comprensión lectora es explicada por el uso de estrategias de aprendizaje autónomo, de ese total, un 25.8% por las estrategias de ampliación, 14.3% por las estrategias de colaboración, 28.7% por las estrategias de conceptualización, 19.6% por las estrategias de preparación de exámenes y finalmente un 19.5% por las estrategias de participación.
Corporate Governance, Competition, and Finance: Re-thinking Lessons from the Asian Crisis

This paper critically examines the Greenspan-Summers-IMF thesis concerning the Asian crisis, which suggested that the fundamental causes of the Asian crisis lay in the microeconomic behavior of economic agents in these societies - in the Asian way of doing business. The paper concentrates on corporate governance and competition in emerging markets and outlines the international significance of these issues in the context of the New International Financial Architecture and the Doha Development Round at the WTO. It reviews new analyses and fresh evidence on corporate governance, corporate finance and on competition in emerging and mature markets, to suggest that the basic thesis above is not valid and the consequent policy proposals are therefore deeply flawed.
Neural network uncertainty assessment using Bayesian statistics with application to remote sensing : 1 . Network weights

[1] Neural network techniques have proved successful for many inversion problems in remote sensing; however, uncertainty estimates are rarely provided. This study has three parts. In this article, we present an approach to evaluate uncertainties (i.e., error bars and the correlation structure of these errors) of the neural network parameters, the so-called ‘‘synaptic weights’’ on the basis of a Bayesian technique. In contrast to more traditional approaches based on ‘‘point estimation’’ of the neural network weights (i.e., only one set of weights is determined by the learning process), we assess uncertainties on such estimates to monitor the quality of the neural network model. Uncertainties of the network parameters are used in the following two papers to estimate uncertainties of the network output [Aires et al., 2004a] and of the network Jacobians [Aires et al., 2004b]. These new theoretical developments are illustrated by applying them to the problem of retrieving surface skin temperature, microwave surface emissivities, and integrated water vapor content from a combined analysis of microwave and infrared observations over land.
Teachers' challenges in educating special children in special classes of three selected primary schools, Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia.

In Malaysia, special classesfor special children have been implemented ever since their first establishment in the 80's. These special classes were introduced in order to overcome the 3M difficulties namely reading, writing and calculating among primary school students, particularly those in the firstgrade. This study was conducted in three selected primary schools in Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia. Qualitative methodology was used and data were obtained through observations and interviews. Respondents consisted of 12 people; special-class teachers,school administrative officers and representative of each officer from the special children unit in the Department of Education, Terengganu. Findings showed that there are students who suffer dyslexia placed in special educational classes. Such a scenario made the teachers involved with these classes to experience challenges. The main challenges that they are facing include no in-depth exposure given to the teachers, emotionally stressed, burden with other workloads, and limited time to teach. Other challenges are limited allocation of funds; teachers show no interest in teaching, inadequate teaching materials, bullies and no recognition given by any party. It is crucial for the authorities to give extra attention not only to the special needs children, but also to the teachers teaching special remedial classes. This is parallel with the national education policy – improving the educational standard for children with special needs.
Changing Technologies of Household Production: Causes and Effects

One of the most interesting topics in the area of economics of family and household is how changes in household technology have affected both household production—the production of goods and services by household members for consumption by household members—and market production—the production of goods and services by paid labor, meant for sale. These changes have also apparently led to profound changes in consumption patterns as well as changes in time use, including women's increased participation in market production. Less obviously, but even more profoundly, they have apparently led to significant changes in our most fundamental choices regarding who we live with and how we live. Most if not all of us alive today and reading this essay can likely not remember a time when electricity did not power our homes, and multiple home appliances run off that power. As of 2012 when I am typing these words (on my home computer, rather than pen them or typewrite them on a manual typewriter), the modern kitchen is a marvel of capital investment, and in addition many homes in the industrialized world harbor modern laundry facilities, let alone garage door openers, vacuum cleaners, and internet access. Yet many home activities also remain fundamentally the same: we still prepare food and consume it—albeit with more store-bought prepared ingredients; tend to personal hygiene; store our possessions; interact with family members and friends; sleep; and clean our abodes. In many ways our homes function much as they did two hundred years ago, though clearly much greater changes become notable as we go farther back in human development, including the absence of 2 fixed residences and few if any personal possessions. So an alternative viewpoint might be that very little has changed about fundamental human existence and needs: it is all about quantity and quality rather than fundamental changes in what we consume. Similarly, while women are now much more likely to work outside the home and have many fewer children in the past, it is also notable that much of what women do in the market often emulates their traditional home-based activities, such as preparing food, cleaning, and tending to children. In addition, while we are much less likely in most middle-class societies to have live-in servants, we procure a wide range of household services from multiple vendors, including gardening services, housecleaning, and childcare. Thus while the labor intensity of any one home activity is …
Friends and Strangers: The Making of a Creole Culture in Colonial Pennsylvania

In its early years, William Penn's "Peaceable Kingdom" was anything but. Pennsylvania's governing institutions were faced with daunting challenges: Native Americans proved far less docile than Penn had hoped, the colony's non-English settlers were loath to accept Quaker authority, and Friends themselves were divided by grievous factional struggles. Yet out of this chaos emerged a colony hailed by contemporary and modern observers alike as the most liberal, tolerant, and harmonious in British America. In Friends and Strangers, John Smolenski argues that Pennsylvania's early history can best be understood through the lens of creolization-the process by which Old World habits, values, and practices were transformed in a New World setting. Unable simply to transplant English political and legal traditions across the Atlantic, Quaker leaders gradually forged a creole civic culture that secured Quaker authority in an increasingly diverse colony. By mythologizing the colony's early settlement and casting Friends as the ideal guardians of its uniquely free and peaceful society, they succeeded in establishing a shared civic culture in which Quaker dominance seemed natural and just. The first history of Pennsylvania's founding in more than forty years, Friends and Strangers offers a provocative new look at the transfer of English culture to North America. Setting Pennsylvania in the context of the broader Atlantic phenomenon of creolization, Smolenski's account of the Quaker colony's origins reveals the vital role this process played in creating early American society.
Teaching excellence : an illusive goal in higher education teaching and learning

ii Acknowledgements iv Chapter One: Introduction to the Portfolio 1 The Projects 3 The contemporary higher education context 4 The nature, purpose and potential value of this education doctorate 10 The needs, perspectives and demands of the workplace 12 The intentions, aspirations and preferences of the individual researcher 14 Chapter Two: Unpacking the Concept of Teaching Excellence 16 Introduction 16 Teaching Excellence as virtue 17 Teaching Excellence as quality 21 Teaching Excellence as scholarship 27 Teaching Excellence as good teaching 33 Teaching Excellence as student learning 37 Teaching Excellence as elite performance 41 Teaching Excellence as a whole of system community enterprise 45 Teaching excellence concept web 53 Chapter Three: Research Methodology 56 Introduction 56 Overall research approach 57 Heuristics 60 Participant action research 66 Insider participant approaches 78 The bricolage 86 Chapter Four: Projects 89 Overview 89 Project One: Rewarding teaching excellence 91 Project Two: High jumps, hurdles, carrots and sticks 118 Project Three: Award Winning Teachers 136 Project Three A: Teaching awards: Rhetoric, myths and realities 139 Project Three B: Teaching awards and university teachers’ sense of self-worth 181 Project Three C: Surviving and sustaining teaching excellence 189 Project Four: Valuing higher education teachers 202 Project Five: Student feedback and teacher evaluation 211 Project Six: Student Goals 229 Chapter Five: Concluding reflections 238 The research journey 238 Recurrent themes, issues, considerations, tensions, contradictions, and dilemmas 242 The nature, value and potential of professional doctorates 248 End of the journey 253
Improving Access to Emergency Contraception Pills through Strengthening Service Delivery and Demand Generation: A Systematic Review of Current Evidence in Low and Middle-Income Countries

Objectives Emergency contraception pills (ECP) are among the 13 essential commodities in the framework for action established by the UN Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children. Despite having been on the market for nearly 20 years, a number of barriers still limit women's access to ECP in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) including limited consumer knowledge and poor availability. This paper reports the results of a review to synthesise the current evidence on service delivery strategies to improve access to ECP. Methods A narrative synthesis methodology was used to examine peer reviewed research literature (2003 to 2013) from diverse methodological traditions to provide critical insights into strategies to improve access from a service delivery perspective. The studies were appraised using established scoring systems and the findings of included papers thematically analysed and patterns mapped across all findings using concept mapping. Findings Ten papers were included in the review. Despite limited research of adequate quality, promising strategies to improve access were identified including: advance provision of ECP; task shifting and sharing; intersectoral collaboration for sexual assault; m-health for information provision; and scale up through national family planning programs. Conclusion There are a number of gaps in the research concerning service delivery and ECP in LMIC. These include a lack of knowledge concerning private/commercial sector contributions to improving access, the needs of vulnerable groups of women, approaches to enhancing intersectoral collaboration, evidence for social marketing models and investment cases for ECP.
Impulse control disorder in patients with Parkinson's disease under dopamine agonist therapy: a multicentre study

Background Impulse control disorders (ICDs) encompass a wide spectrum of abnormal behaviour frequently found in cases of Parkinson's disease (PD) treated with dopamine agonists (DAs). The main aim of this study was to analyse ICD prevalence with different DAs. Methods We carried out a multicentre transversal study to evaluate the presence of ICDs in patients with PD chronically treated (>6 months) with a single non-ergolinic DA (pramipexole, ropinirole, or rotigotine). Clinical assessment of ICD was performed using the Questionnaire for Impulsive-Compulsive Disorders in Parkinson's disease. Results Thirty-nine per cent of patients (91/233) fulfilled the clinical criteria for ICD. The group of patients with ICD symptoms (ICD+) differed from those without ICD symptoms (ICD−) in younger age and type of DA intake. Oral DA treatment (pramipexole and ropinirole) was associated with higher risk of ICDs compared with transdermal DA (rotigotine): 84/197 (42%) patients treated with oral DA developed ICD, versus 7/36 (19%) patients treated with transdermal DA (Fisher's exact text <0.01). In univariate analysis, a younger age (p<0.01), treatment with rasagiline (p<0.05), and especially treatment with an oral DA (pramipexole or ropinirole) (p<0.01) were significantly associated with ICD. Multivariate analysis confirmed that oral DA remained significantly associated with ICD (p: 0.014, OR: 3.14; 1.26–7.83). Conclusions ICD was significantly associated with the use of the non-ergolinic oral DA (pramipexole and ropinirole) when compared with transdermal non-ergolinic DA (rotigotine). Since pramipexole, ropinirole and rotigotine are non-ergolinic DAs with very similar pharmacodynamic profiles, it is likely that other factors including route of administration (transdermal vs oral) explain the difference in risk of ICD development.
Costs and Utilization of Triptan Users Who Receive Drug Prophylaxis for Migraine Versus Triptan Users Who Do Not Receive Drug Prophylaxis

OBJECTIVES: The objectives were 2-fold: (1) to describe the utilization patterns of new users of triptan therapy and (2) to measure the direct (pharmacy and medical) costs of migraine-related health care services in moderate-to-severe migraine patients treated with drug prophylaxis compared with migraine patients who are not treated with drug prophylaxis. METHODS: A retrospective administrative database study was conducted from the perspective of a managed care health plan. Patients initiating triptan therapy were identified, and utilization in the 12 months following initiation of drug therapy was determined. In addition, moderate-to-severe migraine patients were identified based on the quantity of triptan medication dispensed. Patients were classified as utilizing or not utilizing migraine prophylaxis. Migraine-specific health services costs in the 12 months following identification were determined. A multivariate ordinary least squares regression model was constructed to determine the impact of the use of drug prophylaxis on total cost. Utilizing the model, the difference in health services costs was predicted for each subject and the average treatment effect was computed. RESULTS: Thirty-nine percent of new triptan users received only 1 triptan claim during the 12-month follow-up period, accounting for 11.5% of the total triptan cost incurred by the health plan for this cohort. For new triptan users, triptan use in the first or second quarter was correlated with triptan use in the entire 12-month follow-up period (r=0.187 and 0.279, respectively). The mean migraine related pharmacy cost per patient during the follow-up was $871; however, continuous users had mean costs ($1,505) nearly 3 times the mean costs for new users ($506, P less than 0.05). The average treatment effect of drug prophylaxis in moderate-to-severe migraine patients was a decrease of $560 ($514-$607) per patient per year in 1998-2001 dollars. CONCLUSIONS: High utilizers of migraine therapy can be identified early in treatment. Drug prophylaxis for migraine is cost saving, and an intervention program that increases the use of migraine prophylaxis in potential candidates could be cost beneficial.
Applicability of Aegilops tauschii drought tolerance traits to breeding of hexaploid wheat

Few genes are available to develop drought-tolerant bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars. One way to enhance bread wheat’s genetic diversity would be to take advantage of the diversity of wild species by creating synthetic hexaploid wheat (SW) with the genomic constitution of bread wheat. In this study, we compared the expression of traits encoded at different ploidy levels and evaluated the applicability of Aegilops tauschii drought-related traits using 33 Ae. tauschii accessions along with their corresponding SW lines under well-watered and drought conditions. We found wide variation in Ae. tauschii, and even wider variation in the SW lines. Some SW lines were more drought-tolerant than the standard cultivar Cham 6. Aegilops tauschii from some regions gave better performing SW lines. The traits of Ae. tauschii were not significantly correlated with their corresponding SW lines, indicating that the traits expressed in wild diploid relatives of wheat may not predict the traits that will be expressed in SW lines derived from them. We suggest that, regardless of the adaptability and performance of the Ae. tauschii under drought, production of SW could probably result in genotypes with enhanced trait expression due to gene interactions, and that the traits of the synthetic should be evaluated in hexaploid level.
On the variability of return periods of European winter precipitation extremes over the last three centuries

Abstract. We investigate the changes of extreme European winter (December-February) precipitation back to 1700 and show for various European regions that return periods of extremely wet and dry winters are subject to significant changes both before and after the onset of anthropogenic influences. Generally, winter precipitation has become more extreme. We also examine the spatial pattern of the changes of the extremes covering the last 300 years where data quality is sufficient. Over central and Eastern Europe dry winters occurred more frequently during the 18th and the second part of the 19th century relative to 1951–2000. Dry winters were less frequent during both the 18th and 19th century over the British Isles and the Mediterranean. Wet winters have been less abundant during the last three centuries compared to 1951–2000 except during the early 18th century in central Europe. Although winter precipitation extremes are affected by climate change, no obvious connection of these changes was found to solar, volcanic or anthropogenic forcing. However, physically meaningful interpretation with atmospheric circulation changes was possible.
Inverse amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex responses to surprised faces

Here we show inverse fMRI activation patterns in amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) depending upon whether subjects interpreted surprised facial expressions positively or negatively. More negative interpretations of surprised faces were associated with greater signal changes in the right ventral amygdala, while more positive interpretations were associated with greater signal changes in the ventral mPFC. Accordingly, signal change within these two areas was inversely correlated. Thus, individual differences in the judgment of surprised faces are related to a systematic inverse relationship between amygdala and mPFC activity, a circuitry that the animal literature suggests is critical to the assessment of stimuli that predict potential positive vs negative outcomes.