Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Language Change and Language Acquisition

The aim of this paper is to present diachronic changes in terms of the conditions of first language acquisition. Grammars, seen as mental organs, may change between two generations. A change is initiated when (a population of) learners converge on a grammatical system which differs in at least one parameter value from the system internalized by the speakers of the previous generation. Learnability issues then connect to both language acquisition and language change, and understanding language changes depends on understanding how children acquire their native language. Acquisition is a process in which Universal Grammar (UG) interacts with a context-specific set of Primary Linguistic Data (PLD: the linguistic input to the child-learner) and uses these PLD as the source for triggers or cues that map the innate (preexperience) knowledge to a mature grammar. If a certain phenomenon has survived through many generations, it must have been reflected clearly in the PLD. Then, if we note that it has changed, something in the language performance of the previous generation must have changed, and thereby paved the way for a new interpretation. Innovation leading to linguistic variation in the PLD and gradual changes in PLD play a central role in the explanation here: the immediate cause of a grammar change must lie in some alternation in the PLD. We will look at how the language spoken in a certain community (E-language) may gradually become different from the language that originally served as the triggering experience. These changes in the E-language also mean changes in the input available to the child-learners of the next generation and a motivation for a different parameter setting has arisen.
Color pattern and call variation in Kalophrynus from south-east Asia ( Anura : Microhylidae )

We compared the color pattern and external morphology of specimens of Kalophrynus interlineatus BLYTH, 1855 described in the literature and deposited in museums, in particular of name-bearing types, and describe the geographic variation of the taxon. According to the data available, Kalophrynus orangensis DUTTA, AHMED & DAS, 2000 should be considered a junior subjective synonym of K. interlineatus. The advertisement call of specimens from northern Vietnam is described and compared to that from a population of northern Thailand. Significant differences were not found and despite color pattern variation, similarity in the advertisement call does not allow to separate them on species level. The range area of Kalophrynus menglienicus (YANG & Su, 1980) was found to extend into northern Vietnam.
The rates of oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide release of primitive hunters and weaver spiders , the Chilean Recluse spider Loxosceles laeta Nicolet ( Araneae : Sicariidae ) and the Chilean Tiger spider

The rates of oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide release of primitive hunters and weaver spiders, the Chilean Recluse spider Loxosceles laeta Nicolet (Araneae: Sicariidae) and the Chilean Tiger spider Scytodes globula Nicolet (Araneae: Scytodidae), are analyzed, and their relationship with body mass is studied. The results are compared with the metabolic data available for other spiders. A low metabolic rate is found both for these two species and other primitive hunters and weavers, such as spiders of the families Dysderidae and Plectreuridae. The metabolic rate of this group is lower than in nonprimitive spiders, such as the orb weavers (Araneae: Araneidae). The results reject the proposition of a general relationship for metabolic rate for all land arthropods (related to body mass) and agree with the hypothesis that metabolic rates are affected not only by sex, reproductive and developmental status, but also by ecology and life style, recognizing here, at least in the araneomorph spiders, a group having low metabolism, comprising the primitive hunters and weaver spiders, and another group comprising the higher metabolic rate web building spiders (e.g. orb weavers).
Chapter 2 Cognitive Development , Learning and Drug Use

For young adolescents, drugs are usually dichotomously classified as “hard drugs” and “soft drugs”. The former category comprises drugs that are known to induce physical and psychological dependence and to pose high risks to the physical and mental health of users. Opiates are perhaps the prototypical example of this category. Soft drugs, which are typically used for recreational purposes, are contrariwise considered by youths as less liable to induce dependency (physical dependence, in particular) and as not posing a significant risk to the users’ health. The most typical and generalized example of a “soft drug” is cannabis. The belief in the innocuous nature of cannabis causes many youths to deny their use of the drug when asked about their drug habits in the clinical setting; to many youths, the concept of “drug use” is restricted to the so-called synthetic drugs. Instead, the use of cannabis is considered an allegedly innocuous behavior that differs little from the use of other substances with various degrees of psychoactive effects (e.g., caffeine and nicotine). Such beliefs have led cannabis to quickly become the most widely used illegal drug among adolescents. For instance, in the United States, following several
UPDATES ON THE DC FIELD DEPENDENCE CAVITY∗

Work at Cornell has demonstrated good agreement between a theoretical model by A. Gurevich of the anti-Qslope (a field-dependent decrease of the microwave surface resistance) and experimental results from impurity-doped niobium. As a corollary, the model predicts that a strong DC magnetic field applied parallel to the RF surface will produce a similar decrease in surface resistance. In order to explore this prediction for many materials, we have designed a new coaxial cavity with a strong, uniform DC field superimposed over a weak RF field on a removable and replaceable niobium sample. Here we present updates on the progress of this new cavity.
Disruption of ADAM 3 Impairs the Migration of Sperm into Oviduct in Mouse 1

Sperm from four different gene-disrupted mouse lines (calmegin [Clgn], Adam1a, Adam2, and Ace) are known to have defective zona-binding ability. Moreover, it is also reported that the sperm from all of these mouse lines exhibit another common phenotype of impaired migration into oviduct despite the large number of sperm found in uterus after coitus. On the other hand, the sperm from the Adam3-disrupted mouse line was reported to have defects in binding ability to zona, but were able to move into the oviduct. In order to clarify the difference, we investigated the migration of ADAM3-null sperm into oviduct precisely by visualizing the sperm by using acrosin-green fluorescent protein as a tag. As a result, in contrast to previous observations, it was demonstrated that the Adam3-disrupted sperm were unable to migrate into the oviduct after coitus. It was ultimately shown that, in five out of five different genedisrupted mouse lines, the phenotype of impaired sperm binding to zona pellucida was accompanied by the loss of ability of sperm to migrate into the oviduct. This indicates a close relationship between the two phenomena, and also that sperm migration into the oviduct is a crucial step for fertilization. female reproductive tract, fertilization, gamete biology, male sexual function, sperm motility and transport
Diagnostic ( MBMD ) Predicts Health-related Quality of Life ( HrQoL ) Over Time Among Men Treated for Localized Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer treatment presents multiple challenges that can negatively affect health-related quality of life (HrQoL), and which may be further compromised by maladaptive personality styles and psychological adjustment difficulties. This study examined the utility of a comprehensive psychosocial screening tool to identify psychosocial traits that prospectively predict HrQoL status among men treated for localized prostate cancer. The Millon Behavioral Medicine Diagnostic (MBMD) was administered to 66 men (mean age 68 years, 59% Caucasian) treated by either radical prostatectomy or radiotherapy along with standard measures of general and prostate cancer-specific quality of life assessed at a 12-month follow-up. Higher scores on both summary MBMD Management Guides (Adjustment Difficulties and Psych Referral) and higher scores on personality styles characterized by avoidance, dependency, depression, passive aggressiveness and self-denigration predicted lower HrQoL (β range = −.21 to −.50). Additionally, higher scores on the MBMD Depression, Tension-Anxiety and Future Pessimism scales predicted lower HrQoL. Finally, higher scores on the MBMD Intervention Fragility and Utilization Excess scale, also consistently predicted poorer mental and physical health functioning over time. These results point to the utility of the MBMD to help screen for potential impairments in mental and physical health functioning in men undergoing treatment for prostate cancer. Corresponding Author: Frank J. Penedo, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Miami, PO Box 248185, Coral Gables, Florida 33124-0751. No author reported any financial interests or potential conflicts of interest. HHS Public Access Author manuscript J Pers Assess. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2015 March 03. Published in final edited form as: J Pers Assess. 2013 ; 95(1): 54–61. doi:10.1080/00223891.2012. 681819. A uhor M anscript
The multi-agent rendezvous problem

This paper is concerned with the collective behavior of a group of n > 1 mobile autonomous agents, labelled 1 through n, which can all move in the plane. Each agent is able to continuously track the positions of all other agents currently within its "sensing region" where by an agent's sensing region is meant a closed disk of positive radius r centered at the agent's current position. The multi-agent rendezvous problem is to devise "local" control strategies, one for each agent, which without any active communication between agents, cause all members of the group to eventually rendezvous at single unspecified location. This paper describes two types of strategies for solving the problem. The first consists of agent strategies, which are mutually synchronized, in the sense that all depend on a common clock. The second consists of strategies, which can be implemented independent of each other, without reference to a common clock.
The Extended CD 28 : B 7 Immunoglobulin Superfamily

The progression of a productive immune response requires that a number of immunological checkpoints be passed. Passage may require the presence of excitatory costimulatory signals or the avoidance of negative or coinhibitory signals, which act to dampen or terminate immune activity. The immunoglobulin superfamily occupies a central importance in this coordination of immune responses, and the CD28/cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4):B7.1/B7.2 receptor/ligand grouping represents the archetypal example of these immune regulators. In part the role of these checkpoints is to guard against the possibility of unwanted and harmful self-directed activities. While this is a necessary function, aiding in the prevention of autoimmunity, it may act as a barrier to successful immunotherapies aimed at targeting malignant self-cells that largely display the same array of surface molecules as the cells from which they derive. Therapies aimed at overcoming these mechanisms of peripheral tolerance, in particular by blocking the inhibitory checkpoints, offer the potential to generate antitumor activity, either as monotherapies or in synergism with other therapies that directly or indirectly enhance presentation of tumor epitopes to the immune system. Such immunological molecular adjuvants are showing promise in early clinical trials. This review focuses on the results of the archetypal example of checkpoint blockade, anti-CTLA-4, in preclinical tumor models and clinical trials, while also highlighting other possible targets for immunological checkpoint blockade.
Approximate Query Processing for Data Exploration using Deep Generative Models

Data is generated at an unprecedented rate surpassing our ability to analyze them. The database community has pioneered many novel techniques for Approximate Query Processing (AQP) that could give approximate results in a fraction of time needed for computing exact results. In this work, we explore the usage of deep learning (DL) for answering aggregate queries specifically for interactive applications such as data exploration and visualization. We use deep generative models, an unsupervised learning based approach, to learn the data distribution faithfully such that aggregate queries could be answered approximately by generating samples from the learned model. The model is often compact – few hundred KBs – so that arbitrary AQP queries could be answered on the client side without contacting the database server. Our other contributions include identifying model bias and minimizing it through a rejection sampling based approach and an algorithm to build model ensembles for AQP for improved accuracy. Our extensive experiments show that our proposed approach can provide answers with high accuracy and low latency.
Relations between Eating and Exercise behaviors and Predicted Risk of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) and Metabolic Syndrome (METS) among Nurses at Alexandria Main University Hospital

Unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, obesity, and smoking are considered important lifestyle factors that are related to cardiovascular disease (CVD) in women. The current study aimed to identify the relationship between eating and exercise behaviors and predicted risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and metabolic syndrome (MetS) among nurses at Alexandria Main University Hospital. A descriptive correlational approach method with convenient sampling was used in the present study. Three tools were used; Tool 1: A structure interview questionnaire, which included four parts: Part I:Nurses’ socio-demographic characteristics Part II aimed to assess nurses’ life style behaviors as smoking and physical, and daily life activities . Part III included the Rapid Eating Assessment of nurses (REAP) tool, it aimed to assess the intake of whole grains, calcium-rich foods, fruits and vegetables, fat, saturated fat and cholesterol, sugar-containing foods, and sodium. Part IV included Eating Behaviors Inventory (EBI) which assessed both positive and adaptive weight management behaviors. Tool 2:This included two parts, Part 1: Anthropometric measurements including body height, weight, body mass index, and waist circumference, in addition to biochemical measurement were taken. The diagnosis of Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) was obtained based on the American Heart Association/update. Part 2: Predicted Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) risk assessment.10-year risk prediction for CVD using FRAMINGHAM RISK SCORE (FRS.) was specifically used. Results: It was found that high Framingham risk score (FRS) was detected among obese nurses and the prevalence of MetS was also significantly high among nurses with high FRS. Also, the significant inverse relation between the REAP dietary score and FRS was noticed. The eating habits that were common among nurses with high FRS included skipping breakfast, frequent eating outside home, frequent consumption of commercially prepared pastries and sugar sweetened beverages. Three quarters of nurses with high FRS described their work activity as being light to moderate. Few nurses reported walking as a method of transportation which was significantly correlated with lower FRS. This study recommended development of nurses' health behaviors that have direct impact to patients’ health.
Does Corporate Social Responsibility Hit the Mark? A Stakeholder Oriented Methodology for CSR Assessment

Is corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitment effectively disclosed through a company’s sustainably report? Moreover, in what measure is a company’s CSR commitment really acknowledged by its stakeholders? Because it has been observed that stakeholders’ recognition of a company’s social and environmental conduct highly impacts the business returns of CSR initiatives, it is therefore not surprising that measurement of the stakeholder perception is a key issue for CSR assessment. In this paper, we propose a method enabling companies to evaluate the effectiveness of their CSR policies both in terms of disclosure and capacity to fulfill both stakeholder social and environmental expectations. The method we propose compares, through a gap analysis, three measures as follows: the company commitment disclosed through its sustainability report, the company CSR commitment perceived by its stakeholders, and the CSR commitment that stakeholders require to the company. The outcome of the proposed methodology provides managerial insights for evaluating the effectiveness of ongoing CSR practices and for formulating CSR strategies. An application illustrates the use of the methodology in practice.
Perception of Farmers Toward Physical Soil and Water Conservation Structures in Wyebla Watershed, Northwest Ethiopia

The study was carried out in the Wyebla watershed, Northwestern Ethiopia. Similar to the other highland areas in the country Wyebla watershed is characterized by severe soil erosion and acute water scarcity problems. Hence, the objective of the current research was to assess the perception of farmers towards physical soil and water conservation (SWC) structures and current community mobilization in the study area. A total of 106 households were interviewed and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) techniques were employed to collect data. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Majority of sampled farmers (84.9%) were aware about the problem of soil erosion on their farmland. All interviewed farmers perceived soil erosion as a problem constraint for crop production and that soil erosion can be controlled with proper SWC measures. But there are problems to implement and adopt SWC measures in the Wyebla watershed these are; served as a shelter for pests and rats, difficult to tillage, need much labor, need incentives to implement, difficult to implement and reduce farm size. In addition to the above problems the past trends and ways of farmers’ participation on SWC practices are important reasons for the failure of sustainability. However, awareness creation, capacity building and motivating real community participation at planning, implementation and maintenance phases are the critical areas required in depth to insure its sustainability.
The Germination and Growth of Induced F1 Tomato Seeds ByExposure To 0.2mT of Magnetic Field And Fusarium Sp. Infection

Abstract: Exposure of 0.2 mT magnetic field (MF) to tomato seeds is known to increase germination, growthand resistance of plants to Fusarium sp. In this study, the germination and growth of F1 tomato seeds weretested after reinfection with Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lycopersici (Fol). The study was arranged factorially inCompletely Randomized Design (CRD). The first factor is F1 seed types consisting of 8 types: M M 7 F 0 , M 7 F 60 , M 11 F 0 , M 11 F 60 , M 15 F 0 , and M 15 F . The numbers after letter M and F indicate that F1 tomatoseeds were obtained from parental tomato plants whose seeds were induced by exposure of 0.2 mTMF each fo0, 7’48”, 11’44”, and 15’36”and then infected by Fusarium sp. monospore suspension each for 0 and 60minrespectively. The second factor is Fol infection. The data obtained were analyzed variance and followed byFisher's Test at α = 5%. The results show that the parental tomato seeds induced by 0,2 mT MF produce F1seeds that have a higher germination percentage and rate as well as dry weight than the parental tomato seedsof control although reinfected by Fol. These results suggest that the vigor properties of the F1 tomato seeds arethe same as the vigor properties of the parental seeds. 60 Keywords: F1 tomato seed type, germination rate, Fol, germination percentage, and dry weight.
Vanadium in medicinal plants: new data on the occurrence of an element both essential and toxic to plants and man.

The biological importance of the trace element vanadium on a triple level - nutritional, pharmacological and toxicological - determined us to perform a large-scale investigation of medicinal plants in what their vanadium content is concerned, and to evaluate the extraction ratio of this element onto herbal teas. The analysis of 56 species, carried out through Inductively Coupled Plasma - Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), revealed an average V content of 502 �� g/kg dry matter in medicinal plants. The highest V content was found in flowering aerial parts, with an average of 763 �� g/kg, followed by leaves (682 �� g/kg), roots (600 �� g /kg), flowers (352 �� g/kg) and fruits (112 �� g/kg). Wild thyme (Thymus pulegioides) has a particular capacity to accumulate this element; other V-rich species are Geum urbanum, Urtica dioica, Hypericum perforatum and Valeriana officinalis. Given the antidiabetic effect of V, wild thyme may be interesting supplement in diabetes mellitus type II. The extraction ratio of V through decoction ranges between 13% - 85%, according to the investigated species and plant organ; V from subterranean parts is best extractable. The present research presents the first large-scale analysis of Romanian plants with regard to their vanadium content.
REMOVAL OF HEAVY METALS FROM WASTEWATERS BY ION FLOTATION

In this study, ion flotation experiments were performed to investigate the removal of heavy metals (copper, zinc, silver and chromium) from wastewaters. Various parameters such as pH, surfactant and frother concentrations and airflow rate values were tested to determine the optimum flotation conditions. Sodium dodecyl sulfate and Hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide were used as collectors. Ethanol / MIBC were used as frothers. For 10 mg/L initial concentrations of copper, zinc, silver and chromium (III), the highest recoveries obtained were 90%, 71%, 73% and 97%, respectively. When the initial concentration of metals increased the recovery decreased. This proves the attachment of metal ions on surfactant molecules. The presence of Na, Mg, Ca ions in solution reduced the recoveries in case of all the metals since the presence of excess Na, Mg, Ca ions compete with metals and the metal ions can not find enough surfactant molecules to attach to. Selective flotation experiments were conducted in the presence of metal ion mixture solutions. It was possible to separate copper and chromium from zinc and silver, and also possible to separate chromium from zinc and copper and zinc from copper and chromium under suitable conditions. The classical first order equation fitted the results on flotation. Zinc and chromium floated not only more in an amount but also floated faster than copper. Surface tension measurements were conducted to investigate both the collector surfactants and the frothers at air/water interface since air bubbles carry the surfactantmetal ion complexes to the froth and separate from solution.