Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The relationship of SMN to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

The search for a link between spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has been the subject of much epidemiological investigation (Table). Because of natural variability in the copy number of SMN1 and particularly SMN2, the two interacting genes responsible for SMA, there is a high potential that empirical studies will find statistically significant associations in restricted sample populations that ultimately are not meaningful. Data presented in the latest installment of this series of reports, by Corcia and colleagues, suggest a need for reassessment of previous published findings. The 1998 Annals of Neurology article by Moulard and colleagues compared the frequency of homozygous SMN2 deletion in patients with sporadic ALS, familial ALS, and an asymmetricalonset lower motor neuron (LMN) form of ALS. An association between loss of the SMN2 sequence and the LMN ALS form was identified in their sample population. For the purposes of statistical analysis in this article, the control group for each group of ALS was the combination of the other two ALS groups. It also was noted that the prevalence of homozygous deletion in the “control” sporadic and familial ALS groups was similar to the published prevalence of homozygous SMN2 deletion in the normal population. Over the last several years, however, the reported prevalence of homozygous SMN2 deletion in normal control groups has increased somewhat, from the 4 to 5% range to the 10 to 14% range. This may reflect improved detection of SMN2 deletion with the newer polymerase chain reaction/restriction digest technique over the previously used single-strand conformation polymorphism technique. The frequency of SMN2 deletion in the Moulard and colleagues article (6% for all ALS patients, 5% for the non-LMN “control” ALS patients) falls just below, or at the low end, of the range established by other centers using the same polymerase chain reaction/restriction digest technique (Fisher’s exact test, p 0.04, p 0.01, including the Corcia and colleagues control group of similar nationality [10%], p 0.36; p 0.18). With the benefit of this hindsight, reanalysis of the reportedly significant increase in SMN2 deletion frequency in the small LMN ALS cohort by comparison to the Corcia and colleagues control group, the more conservative of these, produces a borderline significant difference of p 0.018 (Fisher’s exact test with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons [three comparison groups tested] for a type I threshold of / 3 0.0167). The two most recent articles in the SMN/ALS series have focused on assessment of copy number of SMN1 and SMN2. Corcia and colleagues report a significantly increased preva-
The effects of mentoring on academic careers over time: Testing performance and political perspectives

Mentors have been associated with protégé career success. In this study, two perspectives on the means by which mentoring advances careers were compared. The performance perspective implies that the effects of mentoring on career advancement operate through performance whereas the political perspective assumes direct effects. Hypotheses derived from the perspectives were tested at early and middle-career stages in a sample of American academics. The amount of mentoring as measured by the number of traditional mentors and other developers predicted achieved rank and the relationship was not mediated by publication productivity. This finding supports the political perspective. In addition, the presence of an outside developer was associated with more publications and having an emotionally-close relationship was associated with higher salary.
Not Nationalists: Russian Teenagers' Soulful A-politics

IN THE LATE 1980S, as the USSR began to fracture along its republics' faultlines, a tide of fear washed across Western media about what was perceived as an alarming rise in nationalist sentiment in Russia. In 1987 the organisation Pamyat' was formed on the rallying cry of Russia's return to its Slavic roots and a call for the eradication of unhealthy foreign influences from its culture and territory. ' Because some of the most virulent nationalistic phrases came from the eloquent mouths and prolific pens of prominent members of the intellectual elite,2 and because patriotic group demonstrations attracted crowds of thousands, the possibility of 'popular sentiments' becoming state-wide sanctions against non-Slavic individuals was not to be ignored.3 At the same time, Soviet Russian observers and those from the West expressed concerns about the impact of glasnost' and globalisation on the young. Reports of the Lyubery, young men from Moscow's working class exurbs who sought out hippies, ethnic minorities and other non-conformists for violent confrontation, fanned the fires of this anxiety. A ready explanation for these attacks was that they were xenophobic reactions to the new national policy of 'openness' and fears of the unknown. Igor S. Kon warned parents and educators of young people's 'social inertia' and their propensity to be swayed by strident ideologies should they fail to develop critical thinking and a solid foundation of democratic values.4 Even after the Lyubery disappeared from the youth scene, a strong distrust, even fear of youth persisted in the Soviet Union as it changed course.5 Some social analysts, mainly British and American, pointed positively to the flurry of young people's stylistic experimentation and cultural production.6 The Russian sociologist Tatiana Zaslavskaya and the American educator Deborah Adelman lauded teenagers for shrugging off political apathy,7 but most others reported less happily on their single-minded pursuit of kaif, or fun.8 In the main, Soviet-Russian journalists and academicians decried what they perceived as the new money-oriented 'moral vacuum' that sucked teenagers into its anti-social vortex and led them to peddling, prostitution and worse.9 Leaving behind the specifics of Russia for a moment, social psychologists have long proclaimed that it is during adolescence, a time of 'betwixt and between' or 'storm and stress', that individuals are prone to challenge the foundations of their society and seek alternatives. Examples from recent history, including the spectacular rise of the Komsomol in the early years of the USSR, the almost mystical attraction of the Hitler Youth for German teenagers during the interwar years,10 and the power
Objective analysis of the effect of memory inclusion on bandwidth extension of narrowband speech

For the purpose of improving Bandwidth Extension (BWE) of narrowband speech, we continue our recent work on the positive effect of exploiting the temporal correlation of speech on the dependence between speech frequency bands. We have shown that such memory inclusion into MFCC speech parametrization translates into higher highband certainty. In the work presented herein, we employ VQ to estimate highband discrete entropies, thus refining our analysis of the effect of memory inclusion on increasing highband certainty. Moreover, we extend our previous analysis to LSF parameters. We further construct a BWE system that exploits our memory inclusion technique, thus translating highband certainty gains into practical BWE performance improvement as measured by the objective quality of reconstructed speech. Results show that memory inclusion decreases the log-Spectral Distortion of the extended highband speech by as much as 1 dB corresponding to more than 14% relative. Index Terms: Bandwidth Extension, Mutual Information.
The j-Subunit of Human Translation Initiation Factor eIF3 Is Required for the Stable Binding of eIF3 and Its Subcomplexes to 40 S Ribosomal Subunits in Vitro*

Eukaryotic initiation factor 3 (eIF3) is a 12-subunit protein complex that plays a central role in binding of initiator methionyl-tRNA and mRNA to the 40 S ribosomal subunit to form the 40 S initiation complex. The molecular mechanisms by which eIF3 exerts these functions are poorly understood. To learn more about the structure and function of eIF3 we have expressed and purified individual human eIF3 subunits or complexes of eIF3 subunits using baculovirus-infected Sf9 cells. The results indicate that the subunits of human eIF3 that have homologs in Saccharomyces cerevisiae form subcomplexes that reflect the subunit interactions seen in the yeast eIF3 core complex. In addition, we have used an in vitro 40 S ribosomal subunit binding assay to investigate subunit requirements for efficient association of the eIF3 subcomplexes to the 40 S ribosomal subunit. eIF3j alone binds to the 40 S ribosomal subunit, and its presence is required for stable 40 S binding of an eIF3bgi subcomplex. Furthermore, purified eIF3 lacking eIF3j binds 40 S ribosomal subunits weakly, but binds tightly when eIF3j is added. Cleavage of a 16-residue C-terminal peptide from eIF3j by caspase-3 significantly reduces the affinity of eIF3j for the 40 S ribosomal subunit, and the cleaved form provides substantially less stabilization of purified eIF3–40S complexes. These results indicate that eIF3j, and especially its C terminus, play an important role in the recruitment of eIF3 to the 40 S ribosomal subunit.
Surgery of quantum graphs

In this paper we intend to present new results concerning the scattering problem on quantum graphs. We offer a new way for the computation of the scattering matrix of the graph using scattering matrices of subgraphs. This method provides us in getting the renormalization scheme for scattering matrices of n+1 and n-stage Sierpinski gaskets
Degree of Perceived Accent in Finnish as a Second Language for Turkish Children Born in Finland

This study investigated whether children born in a second language (L2) environment pronounce their L2 with foreign accents and, if so, when foreign accents first emerge. This study also examined the latest age of onset (AO) of extensive L2 experience at which native L2 pronunciation is possible and explored several factors that affect the degree of perceived accent for child L2 learners. Participants included 20 native Finnish children and 19 Finnish-born Turkish children 7–17 years of age (mean AO = 3) as well as 61 native Finnish raters who evaluated the speech samples for foreign accent using a 9-point scale. Only 4 of the 19 Turkish children spoke Finnish without foreign accents, which were first detectable at an AO of 2.5 years. AO was the main determiner of perceived accent, followed by home use of first language (L1), and the amount of L2 and L1 use. These findings suggest that there is an interplay between AO and language use factors in determining child L2 learners’ accent.
Morals and Markets: The Case of Ethical Investing

Abstract: This paper is a report of an empirical psychological study of the relationship between the ethical and financial beliefs and desires of ethical investors. Semi-structured interviews of 20 ethical investors have been carried out by the project 10 of which have been analysed using qualitative data analysis software. All of our participants faced the problem that, while they had ethical concerns, they were not prepared to sacrifice their essential financial requirements to address them. We found four common ways of dealing with this problem: they divided up their money into core and surplus accounts; they decided that it was enough to only be a partial ethical investor; they avoided detailed consideration of the costs of ethical investment; and they avoided rigorous ethical thinking. One equilibrium position arising from these responses is a portfolio approach to ethics, which allows people to assuage their consciences by investing only a small proportion of their investments ethically, while leaving the rest in non-ethical investment vehicles.
Transparent Electrodes Based on Silver Nanowire Networks: From Physical Considerations towards Device Integration

The past few years have seen a considerable amount of research devoted to nanostructured transparent conducting materials (TCM), which play a pivotal role in many modern devices such as solar cells, flexible light-emitting devices, touch screens, electromagnetic devices, and flexible transparent thin film heaters. Currently, the most commonly used TCM for such applications (ITO: Indium Tin oxide) suffers from two major drawbacks: brittleness and indium scarcity. Among emerging transparent electrodes, silver nanowire (AgNW) networks appear to be a promising substitute to ITO since such electrically percolating networks exhibit excellent properties with sheet resistance lower than 10 Ω/sq and optical transparency of 90%, fulfilling the requirements of most applications. In addition, AgNW networks also exhibit very good mechanical flexibility. The fabrication of these electrodes involves low-temperature processing steps and scalable methods, thus making them appropriate for future use as low-cost transparent electrodes in flexible electronic devices. This contribution aims to briefly present the main properties of AgNW based transparent electrodes as well as some considerations relating to their efficient integration in devices. The influence of network density, nanowire sizes, and post treatments on the properties of AgNW networks will also be evaluated. In addition to a general overview of AgNW networks, we focus on two important aspects: (i) network instabilities as well as an efficient Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) coating which clearly enhances AgNW network stability and (ii) modelling to better understand the physical properties of these networks.
BayDNN: Friend Recommendation with Bayesian Personalized Ranking Deep Neural Network

Friendship is the cornerstone to build a social network. In online social networks, statistics show that the leading reason for user to create a new friendship is due to recommendation. Thus the accuracy of recommendation matters. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian Personalized Ranking Deep Neural Network (BayDNN) model for friend recommendation in social networks. With BayDNN, we achieve significant improvement on two public datasets: Epinions and Slashdot. For example, on Epinions dataset, BayDNN significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms, with a 5% improvement on NDCG over the best baseline. The advantages of the proposed BayDNN mainly come from its underlying convolutional neural network (CNN), which offers a mechanism to extract latent deep structural feature representations of the complicated network data, and a novel Bayesian personalized ranking idea, which precisely captures the users' personal bias based on the extracted deep features. To get good parameter estimation for the neural network, we present a fine-tuned pre-training strategy for the proposed BayDNN model based on Poisson and Bernoulli probabilistic models.
Association of oxidative status and semen characteristics with seminal plasma proteins of buffalo semen

To study the influence of season on oxidative status of buffalo semen and their association with semen characteristics and seminal plasma proteins, ejaculates were collected twice a week in winter, summer and rainy seasons from six adult Bhadawari buffalo bulls. The neat semen was analyzed for semen characteristics immediately after collection and oxidative status viz. lipid peroxidation (LPO), catalase (CAT), super oxide dismutase (SOD) activity, and total protein (TP) were estimated in seminal plasma. The protein profiling was carried out by one-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). The significant effect of season was observed on TP, SOD activity and % protein fractions of seminal plasma proteins of buffalo bulls. The TP values showed positive correlation with ejaculate volume (EV), sperm concentration (SC), and % live-dead (LD) and negative correlation with progressive motility (PM), and hypo-osmotic swelling test (HOST). The SOD activity showed positive correlation with PM, LD, HOST and % acrosoamal integrity (AI). Besides that, results showed correlation of TP with 6.5, 38 and 66 kDa proteins, LPO with 70, 72, 84 and 86 kDa proteins, CAT with 70 kDa and 86 kDa proteins, and SOD with 6.5, 24.5, 44.5, 70 and 72 kDa proteins. In conclusion, this study indicated that TP and SOD activity of seminal plasma of buffalo bulls were influenced by season and were found to be associated with some of the semen characteristics and expression of seminal plasma proteins.
The influence of anger-arousal level on attribution of hostile intent and problem solving capability in an individual with a mild intellectual disability and a history of difficulties with aggression

Background Recent studies have suggested that cognitive biases may play an important mediating role in aggressive outbursts from people with mild intellectual disabilities (IDs). Essentially, some individuals may frequently perceive other people as acting towards them in a hostile fashion. This biased perception may develop through repeated adverse experiences, and may make them more likely to respond, likewise, in an aggressive manner. These studies have led to the development of a cognitive behavioural model of aggression, incorporating factors both intrinsic and extrinsic to the individual. This study aimed to explore one facet of this model: a putative relationship between anger-arousal level, problem-solving ability and perception of hostile intent in others. Method Single-case methodology was utilized, and a 44-year-old man with a mild ID and a history of difficulties with aggression participated. A series of vignettes, containing potentially provocative social interactions, were read to the participant. His perception of hostile intent, and suggestions of possible behavioural responses were recorded as dependent variables. Anger-arousal was manipulated, through autobiographical recall, as a dependent variable. Results Although not conclusive, results indicate that anger-arousal may act in an interactive fashion to increase perception of hostile intent. No effect of anger-arousal was observed on problem-solving ability; however, floor-effects in the task used may provide an explanation for this. Conclusions A high level of anger-arousal may exacerbate the probability of a frequently aggressive individual perceiving others as acting in a hostile manner. However, future research should take the limitations of this study into account, and continue development of a cognitive model of frequent aggression in those with a mild ID.
Chromosome-Wide Analysis of Gene Function by RNA Interference in the African Trypanosome

ABSTRACT Trypanosomatids of the order Kinetoplastida are major contributors to global disease and morbidity, and understanding their basic biology coupled with the development of new drug targets represents a critical need. Additionally, trypanosomes are among the more accessible divergent eukaryote experimental systems. The genome of Trypanosoma brucei contains 8,131 predicted open reading frames (ORFs), of which over half have no known homologues beyond the Kinetoplastida and a substantial number of others are poorly defined by in silico analysis. Thus, a major challenge following completion of the T. brucei genome sequence is to obtain functional data for all trypanosome ORFs. As T. brucei is more experimentally tractable than the related Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania spp. and shares >75% of their genes, functional analysis of T. brucei has the potential to inform a range of parasite biology. Here, we report methods for systematic mRNA ablation by RNA interference (RNAi) and for phenotypic analysis, together with online data dissemination. This represents the first systematic analysis of gene function in a parasitic organism. In total, 210 genes have been targeted in the bloodstream form parasite, representing an essentially complete phenotypic catalogue of chromosome I together with a validation set. Over 30% of the chromosome I genes generated a phenotype when targeted by RNAi; most commonly, this affected cell growth, viability, and/or cell cycle progression. RNAi against approximately 12% of ORFs was lethal, and an additional 11% had growth defects but retained short-term viability in culture. Although we found no evidence for clustering or a bias towards widely evolutionarily conserved genes within the essential ORF cohort, the putative chromosome I centromere is adjacent to a domain containing genes with no associated phenotype. Involvement of such a large proportion of genes in robust growth in vitro indicates that a high proportion of the expressed trypanosome genome is required for efficient propagation; many of these gene products represent potential drug targets.
Psychometric Evaluation of the Chinese Virtues Questionnaire

Objectives: The present study examined the psychometric properties of the Chinese Virtues Questionnaire (CVQ). The reliability, factor structure, construct validity, and temporal stability of the inventory were examined. Method: A university student sample (n = 878) and a working adult sample (n = 153) were recruited. Participants were asked to complete the paper-and-pencil CVQ and a set of questionnaires to measure both their positive and negative psychological status. Results: The results supported the three-factor structure of the CVQ established earlier. Factorial invariants were found in different subsamples (students vs. workers; male vs. female). Each factor (interpersonal, vitality, and cautiousness) demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency (α = .87 to .92), test–retest reliability (r = .70 to .76), convergent validity, discriminant validity, incremental validity, temporal stability, and theoretical significance. Conclusions: The questionnaire with good psychometric characteristics and solid cultural foundations can facilitate positive social work assessment and intervention.
Organizational, Business, Management, and Corporate Communication: An Analysis of Boundaries and Relationships

This paper sets out a theory-based analysis of boundaries for four communication- focused subject areas that may be legitimately taught in business schools: organiza tional communication, business communication, management communication, and corporate communication. System, process, and product models provide the basis for the analysis. Those models were derived primarily from published definitions and taxonomies of the four areas. Such conceptual differentiation allows for a relatively objective determination of discipline boundaries and their interrelationships.