Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biochemical aspects of comparative nutrition

In their excellent book, Genetics and Metabolism, Wagner & Mitchell (1964) point out that 'the magnitude of a biochemical reaction depends not only on the magnitude of a change in concentration of a component that enters the reaction but also on the existing operational state of the system'. For the purpose of the present review we might generalize this statement to say that the metabolic fate of ingested foodstuffs depends not only on the composition of the food but also on the physiological state of the animal. Further, because different animals can inhabit different environments the available metabolic choice may vary with the species. This review will briefly consider the way in which the interaction of animal and environment may modify the use of food for energy production. For this reason carbohydrate metabolism will be the main subject of consideration ; lipids will be summarily dealt with and amino acids, which provide energy from the degradation of their carbon skeletons, will only receive mention where they impinge on carbohydrate metabolism.
Migration and autism spectrum disorder: population-based study

Background Migration has been implicated as a risk factor for autism, but evidence is limited and inconsistent. Aims To investigate the relationship between parental migration status and risk of autism spectrum disorder, taking into consideration the importance of region of origin, timing of migration and possible discrepancies in associations between autism subtypes. Method Record-linkage study within the total child population of Stockholm County between 2001 and 2007. Individuals with high- and low-functioning autism were defined as having autism spectrum disorder with and without comorbid intellectual disability, and ascertained via health and habilitation service registers. Results In total, 4952 individuals with autism spectrum disorder were identified, comprising 2855 children with high-functioning autism and 2097 children with low-functioning autism. Children of migrant parents were at increased risk of low-functioning autism (odds ratio (OR) = 1.5, 95% CI 1.3–1.7); this risk was highest when parents migrated from regions with a low human development index, and peaked when migration occurred around pregnancy (OR = 2.3, 95% CI 1.7–3.0). A decreased risk of high-functioning autism was observed in children of migrant parents, regardless of area of origin or timing of migration. Parental age, income or obstetric complications did not fully explain any of these associations. Conclusions Environmental factors associated with migration may contribute to the development of autism presenting with comorbid intellectual disability, especially when acting in utero. High- and low-functioning autism may have partly different aetiologies, and should be studied separately.
Teachers’ capacity for organizational learning: the effects of school culture and context

ABSTRACT This paper investigates how key elements of school culture are associated with teachers’ capacity to find and act on new information. We analyzed survey data from 3,579 teachers located in 117 schools which were a randomly selected sample from 9 states in the US. We found that school cultural components such as academic press, student support, and trust and respect among teachers promote teachers’ capacity for organizational learning. We also found that the role of teacher professional culture in molding the capacity for organizational learning is critical. In terms of school contexts, we identified that school level (elementary, middle, and high school) was associated with teachers’ capacity for organizational learning in 2 different ways. First, as the school level increases, the capacity for organizational learning tends to decrease. Second, as school level increases, the positive relation between reflective dialogue and teachers’ capacity for organizational learning is weakened. Implications of these results are discussed.
Agent-Based Models and Individualism: Is the World Agent-Based?

Agent-based models (ABMs) are an increasingly popular tool in the social sciences. This trend seems likely to continue, so that they will become widely used in geography and in urban and regional planning. We present an overview of examples of these models in the life sciences, economics, planning, sociology, and archaeology. We conclude that ABMs strongly tend towards an individualist view of the social world. This point is reinforced by closer consideration of particular examples. This discussion pays attention to the inadequacy of an individualist model of society with reference to debates in social theory. We argue that because models are closed representations of an open world it is important that institutions and other social structures be explicitly included, or that their omission be explained. A tentative explanation for the bias of ABMs is offered, based on an examination of early research in artificial intelligence and distributed artificial intelligence from which disciplines the approach is derived. Some implications of these findings are discussed. We indicate some useful research directions which are beginning to tackle the individualism issue directly. We further note that the underlying assumptions of ABMs are often hidden in the implementation details. We conclude that such models must be subject to critical examination of their assumptions, and that model builders should engage with social theory if the approach is to realise its full potential.
Changes in Anterior Segment Parameters Following Pars Plana Vitrectomy Measured by Ultrasound Biomicroscopy (UBM)

Despite being a posterior segment ocular surgery, pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) may also affect anterior segment parameters. We aimed to investigate anterior segment alterations following PPV using ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) to visualize the structural anatomy of the eye. In this study, we enrolled phakic patients undergoing PPV (as the sole procedure). The anterior chamber depth, crystalline lens anterior-posterior (AP) diameter, anterior chamber angle, ciliary body dimensions, and integrity of the ciliary zonules and posterior capsule were assessed using UBM before and at least 3 months after PPV. Seven eyes from seven patients were included in the study. The indications for PPV were rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (57%), epiretinal membrane (29%), and macular hole (14%). The mean age of the patients was 57.86 ± 6.56 years, and they were followed up for a mean of 131.57 ± 29.99 days. The crystalline lens AP diameter was the only parameter that changed significantly following PPV (p = 0.042). Thus, increases in the crystalline lens AP diameter, without significant changes in the anterior chamber depth, can be expected after PPV due to the development of nuclear sclerotic cataracts.
Rapid Change in Parasite Infection Traits Over

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Auld, S. K. J. R. , Wilson, P. J. and Little, T. J. (2014), Rapid change in parasite infection traits over the course of an epidemic in a wild host–parasite population. Oikos, 123: 232–238, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley. com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2013. 00720.x/full. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
Atp-sensitive Potassium

(KATP) channels were initially described in the mammalian heart by Noma (1983) and have since been shown to play critical regulatory roles in a variety of other tissues (Ashcroft and Ashcroft, 1990). Despite intensive work, however, the functional consequences of sarcolemmal channel activation in cardiac muscle are still unknown (Flagg and Nichols, 2001). KATP channels are activated when intracellular oxygen levels and ATP/ADP ratios are low, thereby contributing to hypoxia-induced shortening of action potential duration (APD; Nakaya et al., 1991; Shigematsu and Arita, 1997). Mounting evidence suggests that KATP channels play a beneficial role in cellular response to hypoxia and ischemia in The precise mechanism by which cardiac KATP channel activation protects the heart is unclear, and the question is complicated by the fact that the relative roles of sarcolemmal vs mitochondrial KATP channels in cardioprotection are still being debated (Gross and Fryer, 1999; Rajashree et al., 2002; Sato et al., 2000). These observations, however, invite speculation as to the role potentially played by these channels in the hearts of aquatic ectotherms, which may be regularly exposed to environmental hypoxia. Sarcolemmal KATP channels are found at high densities in the hearts of goldfish (Ganim et al., 1998), and those of the closely related crucian carp Carassius carassius are activated during chemical anoxia and metabolic inhibition (Paajanen and Vornanen, 2002). In addition, mitochondrial KATP channels have been shown to influence cardiac performance during anoxia in the yellowtail flounder (Limanda ferruginea; MacCormack and Driedzic, 2002). It has been hypothesized that KATP channel activation under metabolically stressful conditions, whether in the heart or in the brain, could contribute to the enhanced tolerance of environmental hypoxia exhibited by many ectothermic vertebrates Hypoxia-induced shortening of cardiac action potential duration (APD) has been attributed in mammalian hearts to the activation of ATP-sensitive potassium (K ATP) channels. Since K ATP channels are also present at high densities in the hearts of vertebrate ectotherms, speculation arises as to their function during periods of reduced environmental oxygen. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether nitric oxide (NO) plays a role in cardiac sarcolemmal K ATP channel activation during hypoxia in a species with a high degree of tolerance to low oxygen environments: the goldfish (Carassius auratus). Conventional intracellular and patch-clamp recording techniques were used to record responses from excised ventricles or isolated ventricular myocytes and inside-out patches, respectively, from fish acclimated at 21°C. During moderate, substrate-free …
Molecular Identification and Expressive Characterization of an Olfactory Co-Receptor Gene in the Asian Honeybee, Apis cerana cerana

Abstract Olfaction recognition process is extraordinarily complex in insects, and the olfactory receptors play an important function in the process. In this paper, a highly conserved olfactory co-receptor gene, AcerOr2 (ortholog to the Drosophila melanogaster Or83b), cloned from the antennae of the Asian honeybee, Apis cerana cerana Fabricius (Hymenoptera: Apidae), using reverse transcriptase PCR and rapid amplification of cDNA ends. The full-length sequence of the gene was 1763 bp long, and the cDNA open reading frame encoded 478 amino acid residues, including 7 putative transmembrane domains. Alignment analysis revealed that AcerOr2 shares high homology (> 74%) with similar olfactory receptors found in other Hymenoptera species. The amino acid identity with the closely related species Apis mellifera reached 99.8%. The developmental expression analysis using quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase PCR suggested that the AcerOr2 transcript was expressed at a relatively low level in the larval stage, whereas it was expressed broadly in the pupal and adult stages, with a significantly high level on the days just before and after eclosion. In situ hybridization showed that AcerOr2 mRNA was expressed in sensilla placodea and on the basal region of the worker antennal cuticle, in accordance with the previous conclusions that the conserved genes are expressed in most olfactory receptor neurons.
HISTORY OF GALAXY INTERACTIONS AND THEIR IMPACT ON STAR FORMATION OVER THE LAST 7 Gyr FROM GEMS

We perform a comprehensive estimate of the frequency of galaxy mergers and their impact on star formation over z∼ 0.24–0.80 (lookback time Tb∼ 3–7 Gyr) using ∼3600 (M⩾ 1 × 109 M☉) galaxies with GEMS Hubble Space Telescope, COMBO-17, and Spitzer data. Our results are as follows. (1) Among ∼790 high-mass (M⩾ 2.5 × 1010 M☉) galaxies, the visually based merger fraction over z∼ 0.24–0.80, ranges from 9% ± 5% to 8% ± 2%. Lower limits on the major merger and minor merger fraction over this interval range from 1.1% to 3.5%, and 3.6% to 7.5%, respectively. This is the first, albeit approximate, empirical estimate of the frequency of minor mergers over the last 7 Gyr. Assuming a visibility timescale of ∼0.5 Gyr, it follows that over Tb∼ 3–7 Gyr, ∼68% of high-mass systems have undergone a merger of mass ratio >1/10, with ∼16%, 45%, and 7% of these corresponding respectively to major, minor, and ambiguous “major or minor” mergers. The average merger rate is ∼ a few ×10−4 galaxies Gyr−1 Mpc−3. Among ∼2840 blue-cloud galaxies of mass M⩾ 1.0 × 109 M☉, similar results hold. (2) We compare the empirical merger fraction and merger rate for high-mass galaxies to three Λ cold dark matter-based models: halo occupation distribution models, semi-analytic models, and hydrodynamic SPH simulations. We find qualitative agreement between observations and models such that the (major+minor) merger fraction or rate from different models bracket the observations, and show a factor of 5 dispersion. Near-future improvements can now start to rule out certain merger scenarios. (3) Among ∼3698 M⩾ 1.0 × 109 M☉ galaxies, we find that the mean star formation rate (SFR) of visibly merging systems is only modestly enhanced compared to non-interacting galaxies over z∼ 0.24–0.80. Visibly merging systems only account for a small fraction (<30%) of the cosmic SFR density over Tb∼ 3–7 Gyr. This complements the results of Wolf et al. over a shorter time interval of Tb∼ 6.2–6.8 Gyr, and suggests that the behavior of the cosmic SFR density over the last 7 Gyr is predominantly shaped by non-interacting galaxies.
Ocular Manifestations of Alzheimer's Disease in Animal Models

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, and the pathological changes of senile plaques (SPs) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) in AD brains are well described. Clinically, a diagnosis remains a postmortem one, hampering both accurate and early diagnosis as well as research into potential new treatments. Visual deficits have long been noted in AD patients, and it is becoming increasingly apparent that histopathological changes already noted in the brain also occur in an extension of the brain; the retina. Due to the optically transparent nature of the eye, it is possible to image the retina at a cellular level noninvasively and thus potentially allow an earlier diagnosis as well as a way of monitoring progression and treatment effects. Transgenic animal models expressing amyloid precursor protein (APP) presenilin (PS) and tau mutations have been used successfully to recapitulate the pathological findings of AD in the brain. This paper will cover the ocular abnormalities that have been detected in these transgenic AD animal models.
What is at Stake when Determining Lifetime Asset Allocation?

This paper examines the effects of deviating from the optimal life-cycle asset allocation. The magnitude of likely deviations is gauged through an analysis of differences between available life-cycle funds. The motivation is that due to search costs, the complexity of the decision problem and other factors, an investor may choose a fund with asset allocation profile A even though profile B would be optimal. The associated utility losses are quantified using a model of lifetime consumption and portfolio choice. The results suggest that utility losses are modest. In many cases, they are smaller than the utility loss which arises if the return on financial assets is reduced by 0.3% per annum. The results help to focus on the most important decisions when saving for retirement, and to balance the costs and benefits of customising saving products.
Sense Anaphoric Pronouns: Am I One?

This paper focuses on identity-of-sense anaphoric relations, in which the sense is shared but not the referent. We are not restricted to the pronoun one, the focus of the small body of previous NLP work on this phenomenon, but look at a wider range of pronouns (that, some, another, etc.). We develop annotation guidelines, enrich a third of English OntoNotes with sense anaphora annotations, and shed light onto this phenomenon from a corpus-based perspective. We release the annotated data as part of the SAnaNotes corpus. We also use this corpus to develop a learning-based classifier to identify sense anaphoric uses, showing both the power and limitations of local features.
The Blast Wave Model for AGN Feedback: Effects on AGN Obscuration

We compute the effect of galactic absorption on active galactic nucleus (AGN) emission in a cosmological context by including a physical model for AGN feeding and feedback in a semianalytic model of galaxy formation. This is based on galaxy interactions as triggers for AGN accretion and on expanding blast waves as a mechanism to propagate outwards the AGN energy injected into the interstellar medium at the center of galaxies. We first test our model against the observed number density of AGNs with different intrinsic luminosities as a function of redshift. The model yields a “downsizing” behavior in close agreement with the observed one for z≲ 2. At higher redshifts, the model predicts an overall abundance of AGNs (including Compton-thick sources) larger than the observed Compton-thin sources by a factor of ≈2 for z≳ 2 and LX ⩽ 1044 erg s−1. Thus, we expect that at such luminosities and redshifts, Compton-thick sources contribute to about 1/2 of the total AGN population. We then investigate the dependence of the absorbing column density NH associated with cold galactic gas (and responsible for the Compton-thin component of the overall obscuration) on AGN luminosity and redshift. We find that the absorbed fraction of AGNs with NH ⩾ 1022 cm−2 decreases with luminosity for z ⩽ 1. In addition, the total (integrated over luminosity) absorbed fraction increases with redshift up to z ≈ 2, and saturates to the value ≈0.8 at higher redshifts. Finally, we predict that the luminosity dependence of the absorbed fraction of AGNs with LX ⩽ 3 × 1044 erg s−1 will weaken with increasing redshift. We compare our results with recent observations and discuss their implications in the context of cosmological models of galaxy formation.
Theory-Based Instructional Models Applied in Classroom Contexts

There is a strong relationship between learning theories and instructional practices. Effective learning occurs as a result of effective teaching strategies. Effective teaching requires teachers to understand learning concepts and to develop a theoretical orientation combined with practice for efficient instructional design. There are three leading learning theories presented in this article, i.e., behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism, each of which is associated with certain types of instruction to yield productive outcomes. Direct instruction and mastery learning are the two typical models that can measure observable changes in learning behavior, a focus of behaviorism. Self-directed learning and cognitive strategies best represent cognitivism that is mainly reflected by the information processing through a series of complex procedures. Cooperative learning and service learning, on the other hand, can typically demonstrate the nature of constructivism, which places an emphasis on how students construct understanding through social interaction and negotiation of meaning. The instructional models presented in this paper are expected to support teachers to enhance teaching strategies and design effective instruction through a critical reflection of theoretical concepts and practical application.
Prostatic Relaxation Induced by Loperamide Is Reduced in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

This paper shows a new finding about the decrease of relaxative response to loperamide in prostate of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) as compare to normal rats (WKY). Authors demonstrated the reduction of ATP-sensitive potassium channels is resposible for this change using immunoblotting analysis and the decrease of action induced by diazoxide. This view is not mentioned before and is the first one reporting this result.
Multi-criteria evaluation of partitioning schemes for real-time systems

In this paper we study the partitioning approach for multiprocessor real-time scheduling. This approach seems to be the easiest since, once the partitioning of the task set has been done, the problem reduces to well understood uniprocessor issues. Meanwhile, there is no optimal and polynomial solution to partition tasks on processors. In this paper we analyze partitioning algorithms from several points of view such that for a given task set and specific constraints (processor number, task set type, etc.) we should be able to identify the best heuristic and the best schedulability test. We also analyze the influence of the heuristics on the performance of the uniprocessor tests and the impact of a specific task order on the schedulability. A study on performance difference between Fixed Priority schedulers and EDF in the case of partitioned scheduling is also considered.
Efficient and Interpretable Prediction of Protein Functional Classes by Correspondence Analysis and Compact Set Relations

Predicting protein functional classes such as localization sites and modifications plays a crucial role in function annotation. Given a tremendous amount of sequence data yielded from high-throughput sequencing experiments, the need of efficient and interpretable prediction strategies has been rapidly amplified. Our previous approach for subcellular localization prediction, PSLDoc, archives high overall accuracy for Gram-negative bacteria. However, PSLDoc is computational intensive due to incorporation of homology extension in feature extraction and probabilistic latent semantic analysis in feature reduction. Besides, prediction results generated by support vector machines are accurate but generally difficult to interpret. In this work, we incorporate three new techniques to improve efficiency and interpretability. First, homology extension is performed against a compact non-redundant database using a fast search model to reduce running time. Second, correspondence analysis (CA) is incorporated as an efficient feature reduction to generate a clear visual separation of different protein classes. Finally, functional classes are predicted by a combination of accurate compact set (CS) relation and interpretable one-nearest neighbor (1-NN) algorithm. Besides localization data sets, we also apply a human protein kinase set to validate generality of our proposed method. Experiment results demonstrate that our method make accurate prediction in a more efficient and interpretable manner. First, homology extension using a fast search on a compact database can greatly accelerate traditional running time up to twenty-five times faster without sacrificing prediction performance. This suggests that computational costs of many other predictors that also incorporate homology information can be largely reduced. In addition, CA can not only efficiently identify discriminative features but also provide a clear visualization of different functional classes. Moreover, predictions based on CS achieve 100% precision. When combined with 1-NN on unpredicted targets by CS, our method attains slightly better or comparable performance compared with the state-of-the-art systems.