Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nonsynonymous SNPs: validation characteristics, derived allele frequency patterns, and suggestive evidence for natural selection

We experimentally investigated more than 1,200 entries in dbSNP that would change amino‐acids (nsSNPs), using various subsets of DNA samples drawn from 18 global populations (∼1,000 subjects in total). First, we mined the data for any SNP features that correlated with a high validation rate. Useful predictors of valid SNPs included multiple submissions to dbSNP, having a dbSNP validation statement, and being present in a low number of ESTs. Together, these features improved validation rates by almost 10‐fold. Higher‐abundance SNPs (e.g., T/C variants) also validated more frequently. Second, we considered derived alleles and noted a considerably (∼10%) increased average derived allele frequency (DAF) in Europeans vs. Africans, plus a further increase in some other populations. This was not primarily due to an SNP ascertainment bias, nor to the effects of natural selection. Instead, it can be explained as a drift‐based, progressive increase in DAF that occurs over many generations and becomes exaggerated during population bottlenecks. This observation could be used as the basis for novel DAF‐based tests for comparing demographic histories. Finally, we considered individual marker patterns and identified 37 SNPs with allele frequency variance or FST values consistent with the effects of population‐specific natural selection. Four particularly striking clusters of these markers were apparent, and three of these coincide with genes/regions from among only several dozen such domains previously suggested by others to carry signatures of selection. Hum Mutat 27(2), 173–186, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Innervation of cat visual areas 17 and 18 by physiologically identified X‐ and Y‐ type thalamic afferents. II. Identification of postsynaptic targets by GABA immunocytochemistry and Golgi impregnation

The precise location of physiologically identified specific afferent input on the different types of cell in the visual cortex and the identification of the neurotransmitters of these cells are essential to a better understanding of the first stage of cortical processing. A combination of anatomical, neurochemical, and physiological methods was used to identify the cortical neurones that receive synaptic input from X‐ and Y‐type afferents, which are thought to originate from cells of the lateral geniculate nucleus. One method relied on chance contacts made between single physiologically characterised axons, which had been injected with horseradish peroxidase (HRP), and the processes of cells impregnated by the Golgi method. These experiments revealed that both X and Y axons formed synapses on the dendrites of spiny stellate cells in layer 4. Y axons in both areas 17 and 18 established multiple synaptic contacts on basal dendrites of layer 3 pyramidal cells. One X axon contacted the apical dendrite of a layer 5 pyramidal cell and one Y axon contacted the dendrite of a large cell with smooth dendrites in layer 3. The maximum number of synapses made between one axon and a single postsynaptic cell was eight, although in most cases it was only one. It was concluded that one axon only provides a small fraction of the geniculate afferent input to an individual cell.
Sustainable Development, Share Price and Carbon Disclosure Interactions: Evidence From South Africa's JSE 100 Companies

The gradual reorientation of the global economy towards accommodation of the idea of sustainable development has brought new thinking in terms of how corporates address issues pertaining to harmful carbon emissions that lead to global warming and in turn climate change. Hence, since 2007 a number of companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) top 100 have joined the voluntary global Carbon Disclosure Project (now only known as the CDP) managed through the National Business Initiative. This initiative was partly occasioned by pressure from shareholders who wish to be associated with good environmental stewardship. The object of this paper was therefore to discover whether carbon disclosure, as a function of environmental and general disclosure, could be linked to share price movements of sampled JSE top 100 companies. The finding is that the share prices of companies that report voluntarily and participate on a regular or irregular basis in the CDP have experienced almost the same impact in terms of share price movements as a result of official disclosure of their carbon emissions. However, with the anticipated carbon tax implementation in 2014, the CDP report of 2013 demonstrated share price movement impact affecting participating companies. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment
Association of TNF-α rs1799964 and IL-1β rs16944 polymorphisms with multiple system atrophy in Chinese Han population

ABSTRACT Background: Recent evidence suggested that several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of inflammation-related genes (TNF-α rs1799964, IL-1α rs1800587, IL-1β rs16944, IL-8 rs4073, ICAM-1 rs5498) were associated with multiple system atrophy (MSA). Herein, we conducted this case-control study to evaluate the possible correlation between the five SNPs related to inflammation and MSA in Chinese Han population. Methods and Patients: We recruited 154 sporadic patients with MSA and 223 health controls in this study. All subjects were genotyped for the five SNPs using polymerase chain reaction amplification and Sanger sequencing. Results: TNF-α rs1799964, genotype distribution and minor allele frequency (MAF) showed significant differences between patients and controls, which might illustrate the minor allele C may increase the risk for MSA (genotype, P = 0.006, OR = 1.245, 95% CI = [1.066–1.455]; allele, P = 0.001, OR = 1.887, 95% CI = [1.303–2.733]). For rs16944, patients carrying AA genotype showed a nearly 5-year early age at onset (AAO) than GG genotype (50.52 ± 7.45 years vs. 54.90 ± 7.21 years, P = 0.037). No differences were found in genotype distribution and MAF of the five SNPs between patients with MSA with predominant cerebellar ataxia (MSA-C) and with predominant Parkinsonism (MSA-P). Conclusion: Our study suggests that rs1799964 of TNF-α may act as a risk factor for MSA and the IL-1β rs16944 might be a genetic factor that modifies the AAO in MSA. Moreover, the exact mechanism of neuroinflammatory response in MSA deserves further exploration.
Do CEOs Affect Employees' Political Choices?

We analyze whether CEOs influence their employees’ political choices whether this influence has implications for firm value. We find that employees donate three times more money to CEO-supported political candidates than to other candidates. This relation also holds around CEO departures, including plausibly exogenous departures due to retirement or death. Equity returns are significantly higher when CEO-supported candidates win elections than when employee-supported candidates win. Further, CEO influence is strongest in firms with the largest potential benefits from political participation and firms that explicitly advocate for political candidates. Our results suggest that CEOs are a political force that benefits shareholders
RBE values and repair characteristics for colo-rectal injury after caesium 137 gamma-ray and neutron irradiation. II. Fractionation up to ten doses.

Early and late colo-rectal damage in mice have been assessed after 137Cs gamma irradiation and 3 MeV neutrons given as 1,2,5 or 10 fractions. Damage was measured by early changes in body weight, the late production of short faecal pellets and the pattern of lethality after irradiation. The data have been analysed in terms of the time course of expression of damage, fractionation effects and the RBE for neutrons over a wide range of doses per fraction (0.5-12.5 Gy neutrons, 3.5-33.5 Gy gamma rays). An initial epithelial denudation led to an early loss of weight, maximal at 11-17 days after irradiation. A dose-dependent weight reduction persisted over the animals' life-time. Deaths after localised pelvic gamma irradiation were progressive with no sharp demarcation between early or late phases of injury. The time course for lethality was qualitatively similar after neutrons. Beyond six months the rectum became constricted by fibrosis and a higher proportion of small faecal pellets was observed. At 6-15 months relatively shallow dose-response curves were obtained for this change. The sparing effect of fractionation was marked for the gamma-irradiated mice and almost absent after neutrons. A very high repair increment (11 Gy) was seen with two gamma-ray fractions of 20 Gy. At lower doses per fraction the proportion of each gamma-ray fraction recovered was 50-69% for all assays, i.e., similar to that for other normal tissues. There was a slight enhancement in the sparing effect for the late compared with the early assays over the lower dose range. The RBE was strongly dependent on dose per fraction because of the lack of reparable damage after neutrons. The RBE for both early and late effects was 5.0 at a neutron dose per fraction of 1 Gy. Extrapolation of the RBE data to lower doses, using the linear quadratic model, predicts a higher RBE for late (7.4-12.7) than for early damage (5.7-8.5) if gamma-ray doses below 5 Gy are used.
An experimental study of in-plane light scattering in titanium diffused Y-cut LiNbO3optical waveguides

This paper describes experimental studies on in-plane scattering of TE-polarized light in titanium-diffused Y-cut LiNbO3optical waveguides as a function of the diffusion process parameters of time, temperature, and the initial film thickness. The dependence of surface roughness on the waveguide fabrication parameters is also described. It has been found that as diffusion time and temperature are increased, in-plane light scattering firstly decreases but then eventually increases. The eventual increase in in-plane scattering is, apparently, because of growth of subsurface waveguide defects. From these studies, a reasonably consistent interpretation for the dependence of the quality of the optical waveguide on the waveguide fabrication parameters has emerged.
Efficient local filter bank with over complete spatiotemporal pooling in action recognition

Action recognition task has been researched for years, algorithms based on local spatiotemporal interest points have gained successful results. However, these methods mainly face the problems like: the STIPs detectors only extract a sparse set of features and lack of structural orders. In this paper, we present a local motion filter bank with haar3D filters for action recognition. The filter bank is convoluted with the input volumes to decompose the motions as directions. Then an over complete spatiotemporal pooling stage is advocated to invariant to small shifts and hold the spatiotemporal information. Finally, sharing features are selected from the descriptors to form sparse linear models. The performance is tested in public data sets and gained reasonable results.
ANALISIS FAKTOR-FAKTOR YANG MEMPENGARUHI RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI)

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh dari rasio-rasio keuangan, yaitu Current Ratio (CR), Inventory Turnover Ratio (ITR), dan Debt To Equity Ratio (DER) terhadap Return On Investment (ROI) Perusahaan Manufaktur di Negara ASEAN. Teknik analisis data yang digunakan adalah statistik deskriptif, uji asumsi klasik, analisis regresi berganda, uji hipotesis F-statistik untuk menguji pengaruh secara bersama-sama, uji t-statistik utuk menguji koefisien regresi parsial, serta uji ANOVA untuk mengetahui perbedaan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa bahwa variabel Current Ratio (CR), Inventory Turnover Ratio (ITR), dan Debt To Equity Ratio (DER) berpengaruh sebesar 10,3% terhadap Return On Investment (ROI), sedangkan 89,7% sisanya dijelaskan oleh sebab atau variabel lain diluar model penelitian ini. Persamaan regresi pada penelitian ini yaitu, ROI = 0,752 + 0,010 CR + 0,584 ITR + 0,002 DER. Secara parsial, CR memiliki pengaruh positif dan tidak signifikan terhadap ROI, ITR memiliki pengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap ROI, dan DER memiliki pengaruh positif dan dan tidak signifikan terhadap ROI. Secara simultan, CR, ITR, dan DER berpengaruh signifikan terhadap ROI. Hasil uji ANOVA menunjukkan bahwa terdapat perbedaan Current Ratio (CR), Inventory Turnover Ratio (ITR), Debt To Equity Ratio (DER), dan Return On Investment (ROI) antar perusahaan manufaktur pada Negara ASEAN tahun 2012-2014. Kata kunci: Current Ratio , Inventory Turnover , Debt To Equity Ratio , Return On Investment
Technology Access and Use in North Dakota Family and Consumer Sciences Classrooms

The purpose of this study was to examine what technology is available in the North Dakota family and consumer sciences (FCS) classroom, how technology is being used, and whether select demographic characteristics of family and consumer sciences teachers have an effect on the access to technology. An online survey tool was used to gather data. Over half (52%) of the approximately 180 FCS teachers in North Dakota completed the survey, with a total of 93 respondents. Descriptive statistics were calculated for the demographic questions (age, years teaching FCS, years teaching, grade level, and school size) and how technology was being used. Descriptive statistics were calculated along with multiple regression analysis on the questions dealing with technology access.
A 3-year study on the effect of RGP contact lenses on myopic children.

AIM AND BACKGROUND Recent studies in the West have shown that rigid gas-permeable (RGP) contact lenses can control the progress of myopia in children. These studies were done on Caucasian children, whose myopias are less rapidly progressive than those which we see in Singaporean children. This three-year study was started in 1993, with the following objectives: 1. To verify whether RGP contact lenses can control the progress of myopia in Singaporean children. 2. If so, to investigate the mechanism by which the lenses control myopia; whether by corneal flattening or by reducing the growth of the axial length. 3. If so, to assess if the effects are permanent, by discontinuing lens wear. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was carried out at the Eye Clinic of the School Health Service. Enough school children were referred to the clinic from the various schools to achieve about 100 children wearing contact lenses. Past studies showed that the drop-out rate would be 50%, as there is no cosmetic motivation in 10 year-old children to wear contact lenses. The successful wearers were those who had parental encouragement and support. RESULTS The results show that there was a suppression of the progress of myopia in children wearing the lenses as compared to their counterparts wearing spectacles. However, only in ten eyes was there arrest of the myopia. For the lenses to be effective, they needed to be worn regularly for about eight hours a day. Reasons for the drop-outs included lack of motivation, lens intolerance and simply being too busy with the school curriculum. Discontinuance of lens wear for more than 2 months had minimal effect on the refraction, indicating that the controlling effect was not due purely to corneal change. CONCLUSION It is recommended that more studies be done to confirm the findings of this study. Children with rapidly progressive myopia can wear rigid gas-permeable contact lenses to reduce the progression.
Identification of vascular responses to exercise and orthostatic stress in bed rest-induced cardiovascular deconditioning

In this paper, the effects of bed rest-induced cardiovascular deconditioning were investigated by means of a previously developed multivariate model for the assessment of arterial control of circulation. The vascular response to exercise and tilt, before and after a 14-day head down tilt bed rest, was identified and disentangled from the main mechanisms due to global, neural control of circulation. Results of the decomposition of diastolic pressure and pulse pressure beat-by-beat series and the relevant spectral analysis suggested that the autoregulation-related response is not affected by prolonged exposition to microgravity. As to the complex regulation of arterial blood pressure, a maintained responsiveness to sympathetic stimuli was found, even in presence of indications of the cardiovascular deconditioning, such as tachycardia, reset of baroreflex, cardiopulmonary unloading. These preliminary results emphasized the necessity for more complex analyses of the main alterations and compensatory mechanisms elicited by microgravity-induced-cardiovascular deconditioning, in order to develop more effective long term strategies to prevent it.
Validating Business Simulations: Does High Market Share Lead to High Profitability?

Among the nine major strategic influences on profitability reported as part of the ongoing stream of PIMS research is that a business firmâ€™s share of its served market has a strong positive impact on profit and net cash flow. This finding is based on an examination of the performance history of over 3,800 companies contributing data on a yearly basis to the Strategic Planning Institute. A major concern of simulation users through the years is how realistic are business simulation games. Numerous validation studies on business simulations have examined game validity. The market share and profitability levels of 440 simulation companies in 96 industries from two separate simulation games were examined and it was found that market share and profitability levels were significantly and positively correlated but the strength of relationship wasnâ€™t as strong as suggested by the PIMS findings.
Probing the ATP‐binding site of P1 ParA: partition and repression have different requirements for ATP binding and hydrolysis

The ParA family of proteins is involved in partition of a variety of plasmid and bacterial chromosomes. P1 ParA plays two roles in partition: it acts as a repressor of the par operon and has an undefined yet indispensable role in P1 plasmid localization. We constructed seven mutations in three putative ATP‐binding motifs of ParA. Three classes of phenotypes resulted, each represented by mutations in more than one motif. Three mutations created ‘super‐repressors’, in which repressor activity was much stronger than in wild‐type ParA, while the remainder damaged repressor activity. All mutations eliminated partition activities, but two showed a plasmid stability defect that was worse than that of a null mutation. Four mutant ParAs, two super‐repressors and two weak repressors, were analyzed biochemically, and all exhibited damaged ATPase activity. The super‐repressors bound site‐specifically to the par operator sequence, and this activity was strongly stimulated by ATP and ADP. These results support the proposal that ATP binding is essential but hydrolysis is inhibitory for ParA's repressor activity and suggest that ATP hydrolysis is essential for plasmid localization.
Rapid conversion of naive to effector T cell function counteracts diminished primary human newborn T cell responses

The reduced incidence of graft versus host disease following the use of human cord blood as a source of stem cells for bone marrow reconstitution challenges our understanding of the immunocompetence of newborn T cells. Newborn CD4+ T cells express mainly the CD45RA phenotype and have been considered to respond comparably to adult CD4+ T cells exhibiting the CD45RA phenotype. We compared the in vitro kinetics of phenotypic conversion of newborn and adult CD4+CD45RA+ T cells to CD4+CD45RO+ T cells. The cytokine profile and B cell helper activity of the converted CD4+CD45RO+ T cell population were also determined. Newborn CD4+CD45RA+ T cells were converted to CD4+CD45RO+ with significantly faster time kinetics than adult CD4+CD45RA+ T cells, following either phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) or anti‐CD2 activation. Freshly purified newborn naive T cells did not produce IL‐2, IL‐4 or interferon‐gamma (IFN‐γ) following stimulation, whereas adult naive T cells secreted IL‐2 and adult‐derived CD4+CD45RO+ T cells secreted all three cytokines under the same stimulatory conditions. However, newborn and adult CD4+CD45RA+ T cells, following primary stimulation and maturation in vitro, acquired the ability to secrete a Th1‐type cytokine profile of IL‐2 and IFN‐γ after secondary stimulation. Newborn CD4+ naive T cells that acquired the CD45RO phenotype in vitro also gained B cell helper activity equivalent to that of adult in vitro matured CD4+ naive T cells. These findings suggest that newborn and adult CD4+CD45RA+ T cell subsets are differentially responsive to various stimuli. They show that newborn CD4+CD45RA+ naive T cells can transform more quickly than their adult counterparts into functionally equivalent CD4+CD45RO+ T cells, a process that may be important to counteract the immature immune environment which exists in the newborn.
Reduced protein availability by albumen removal during chicken embryogenesis decreases body weight and induces hormonal changes

What is the central question of this study? Prenatal protein undernutrition by albumen removal in an avian model of fetal programming leads to long‐term programming effects, but when do these effects first appear and are these programming effects regulated by the same candidate genes as in mammals? What is the main finding and its importance? The present results indicate that prenatal protein undernutrition by albumen removal induces phenotypical and hormonal changes in the early posthatch period, when the mismatch between the prenatal and postnatal environment first arises, but these changes are not accompanied by an altered gene expression of the selected candidate genes.
Scandinavian Egalitarianism: Understanding Attitudes Towards the Level of Wage Inequality in Scandinavia

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Analysis of an efficient on-chip servo-loop technique for reduced-code static linearity test of pipeline ADCs

This work presents an efficient modification of the classical servo-loop static test setup aimed at the on-chip implementation of reduced-code static linearity test techniques. The proposed modified servo-loop provides a direct measurement of the width of a given ADC code without the need of an integrated voltmeter. The proposed measurement strategy is based on using a controlled step-wise ramp stimulus generator for exciting the ADC under test in such a way that the measurement of a code width can be determined in the digital domain by simply counting the number of ramp steps between two consecutive ADC output transitions. Moreover, the ability of the proposed servo-loop to target a given ADC code makes it very suitable for implementing advanced reduced-code static test techniques. This work analyses the performance limits of the proposed discrete-time servo-loop technique and explores its application to reduced-code linearity testing of pipeline ADCs.