Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
E-box function in a period gene repressed by light

In most organisms, light plays a key role in the synchronization of the circadian timing system with the environmental day–night cycle. Light pulses that phase-shift the circadian clock also induce the expression of period (per) genes in vertebrates. Here, we report the cloning of a zebrafish per gene, zfper4, which is remarkable in being repressed by light. We have developed an in vivo luciferase reporter assay for this gene in cells that contain a light-entrainable clock. High-definition bioluminescence traces have enabled us to accurately measure phase-shifting of the clock by light. We have also exploited this model to study how four E-box elements in the zfper4 promoter regulate expression. Mutagenesis reveals that the integrity of these four E-boxes is crucial for maintaining low basal expression together with robust rhythmicity and repression by light. Importantly, in the context of a minimal heterologous promoter, the E-box elements also direct a robust circadian rhythm of expression that is significantly phase-advanced compared with the original zfper4 promoter and lacks the light-repression property. Thus, these results reveal flexibility in the phase and light responsiveness of E-box-directed rhythmic expression, depending on the promoter context.
Intra-Individual Value Change in Adulthood: A Systematic Literature Review of Longitudinal Studies Assessing Schwartz’s Value Orientations

Values guide people in their lives as overarching principles of judgments and decision making. Focusing on Schwartz’s circumplex value model, the present work is the first systematic literature review (SLR) to comparatively synthesize the empirical evidence regarding stability and change of values in adulthood. Besides understanding the extent of value change, the aim of this review is to reveal the conditions under which values change. The search procedure and screening revealed 19 publications reporting empirical studies on 25 adult samples containing at least two measurements of Schwartz’s values in respondents. Results suggest moderate to high rank-order stabilities of values, even through potentially life-changing transitions. There is evidence of small changes, rarely consistent with theoretical predictions or cross-sectional findings. Preliminary experimental evidence shows that values can be changed with interventions. We identify considerable gaps in knowledge about value change and propose promising avenues for further research.
Prenatal long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid status: the importance of a balanced intake of docosahexaenoic acid and arachidonic acid

Abstract This review addresses the effect of prenatal long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LCPUFA) status on neurodevelopmental outcome. It focuses on the major LPCUFA doxosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6ω3) and arachidonic acid (AA; 20:4ω6). Due to enzymatic competition high DHA intake results in lower tissue levels of AA. LCPUFA accumulation in the brain starts early and increases during the third trimester. Initially brain AA-accretion exceeds DHA-accretion; after term age DHA-accretion surpasses AA-accretion. Animal studies indicated that early ω3-depletion results in poorer developmental outcome. They also showed that early ω3-supplementation had no effect on cognitive outcome, promotes visual development and impairs auditory and motor development. Only limited human data are available. Correlational studies suggest that neonatal AA status shows a positive relation with early neurodevelopmental outcome and that neonatal DHA status also might be correlated with improved outcome beyond infancy. Results of human intervention studies are equivocal: most studies were unable to demonstrate a positive effect of prenatal ω3-supplementation. It is concluded that only limited evidence exists to support the notion that prenatal ω3-supplementation favours developmental outcome. Caution is warranted for an unbalanced high DHA intake during the first two trimesters of pregnancy, i.e., DHA without additional AA supplementation.
Estimation of Gene Insertion/Deletion Rates with Missing Data

Lateral gene transfer is an important mechanism for evolution among bacteria. Here, genome-wide gene insertion and deletion rates are modeled in a maximum-likelihood framework with the additional flexibility of modeling potential missing data. The performance of the models is illustrated using simulations and a data set on gene family phyletic patterns from Gardnerella vaginalis that includes an ancient taxon. A novel application involving pseudogenization/genome reduction magnitudes is also illustrated, using gene family data from Mycobacterium spp. Finally, an R package called indelmiss is available from the Comprehensive R Archive Network at https://cran.r-project.org/package=indelmiss, with support documentation and examples.
Market Information and Price Clustering: Evidence from SEC Rule 201

We provide a novel test of information-based theories of price clustering by examining trade, order, and inside quote price clustering during periods when information is removed from the market. We use a natural experiment of short-sale restrictions resulting from Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule 201 to more effectively determine the impact of information on price clustering, and in turn, more appropriately test the negotiation hypothesis. We find evidence of increased price clustering for trades, orders, and inside quotes during short-sale restrictions. Additionally, we document a dramatic increase in price clustering immediately before a Rule 201 trigger that is reduced once the restriction is triggered suggesting that the restriction may have a stabilizing effect.
Identification of multivariable linear systems from input/output measurements

A stochastic approximation technique for multi-input multi-output (MIMO) system identification is proposed where the technique is based on state space formalization of a system with known indices. The proposed method is applicable to digital computer implementation. Convergence of the technique is shown, and an example showing its effectiveness when compared with another approximation technique is presented. >
Therapeutic Interventions Related to Outcome in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy for Anxiety Disorder Patients

This is the first study with acceptable inter-rater reliability to examine specific therapeutic techniques related to change in anxiety disorder patients during short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy. The study first examined the effectiveness of short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy and results showed significant and positive pre-/post-treatment changes on both patient and independent clinical ratings for anxiety, global symptomatology, relational, social, and occupational functioning. Likewise, the majority of patients (76%) reported anxiety symptoms within a normal distribution at termination. Importantly, psychodynamic interventions rated early in treatment (third/fourth session) were positively related to changes in anxiety symptoms. Further, results showed that several individual psychodynamic techniques were meaningfully related to outcome including (1) focusing on wishes, fantasies, dreams, and early memories; (2) linking current feelings or perceptions to the past; (3) highlighting patients' typical relational patterns; and (4) helping patients to understand their experiences in new ways. Clinical applications are discussed.
Performance of Greek Demented and Nondemented Subjects on the Greek Version of the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale. A Validation Study

ABSTRACT A translated version of the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (DRS) into Greek ((DRS-GR) was applied to a sample of Greek population (N = 356) comprising normal middle-aged and elderly subjects (controls), as well as patients suffering from Parkinson's (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) to test its reliability and validity. A well-known dementia screening instrument, the Mini Mental State Examination test (MMSE), and a nonverbal measure of abstract reasoning, the Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices, were employed as measures of DRS-GR concurrent validity. Reliability analysis was satisfactory with Cronbach's alpha reaching 0.82 and item to total correlations yielding high coefficients for most items. DRS-GR scores were influenced by age and education, but not by gender. Correlation between MMSE and the total DRS-GR score was significant in patients and normal controls, but correlation between DRS-GR and RCPM was significant in AD and nondemented PD only. Specificity and sensitivity for dementia screening, calculated on a Receiver Operating Characteristic curve, with a cut-off score the mean value minus two standard deviations, corrected for age and education, was 96% and 80%, respectively. Our preliminary findings show that DRS-GR is a reliable and well-adapted instrument for clinical application in the Greek population.
The subjective well-being of older adults in Shanghai: The role of residential environment and individual resources

As a rapidly ageing population becomes an increasingly serious social challenge for Chinese megacities, issues affecting older adults’ subjective well-being (SWB) attract greater concern. However, it is difficult to gain a comprehensive understanding of older adults’ SWB, since most SWB theories focus only on specific factors. Moreover, residential environmental factors are hardly considered in studies of older adults’ SWB. In this paper we therefore investigate the effects of residential environment and individual resources on the SWB of older adults in Shanghai, using the integrative theoretical framework proposed by Lindenberg. We investigate the relationships between resources (residential environment and individual resources), needs satisfaction and SWB using multiple regression analysis. Our results show that the residential environment exerts a stronger impact on SWB than individual resources. Good quality residential building, good accessibility to medical and financial facilities, higher economic status of a neighbourhood, and a lower proportion of older adults in a neighbourhood are important environmental correlates of SWB. Health appears to be the most significant individual resource; other important individual resources include household income, a high-skilled occupation, a job in the public sector and living with grandchildren. Comfort is the most important basic need for older adults.
Simultaneous Estimation of the Fat Fraction and R2* Via T2*-Corrected 6-Echo Dixon Volumetric Interpolated Breath-hold Examination Imaging for Osteopenia and Osteoporosis Detection: Correlations with Sex, Age, and Menopause

Objective To investigate the relationships of T2*-corrected 6-echo Dixon volumetric interpolated breath-hold examination (VIBE) imaging-based fat fraction (FF) and R2* values with bone mineral density (BMD); determine their associations with sex, age, and menopause; and evaluate the diagnostic performance of the FF and R2* for predicting osteopenia and osteoporosis. Materials and Methods This study included 153 subjects who had undergone magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, including MR spectroscopy (MRS) and T2*-corrected 6-echo Dixon VIBE imaging. The FF and R2* were measured at the L4 vertebra. The male and female groups were divided into two subgroups according to age or menopause. Lin's concordance and Pearson's correlation coefficients, Bland-Altman 95% limits of agreement, and the area under the curve (AUC) were calculated. Results The correlation between the spectroscopic and 6-echo Dixon VIBE imaging-based FF values was statistically significant for both readers (pc = 0.940 [reader 1], 0.908 [reader 2]; both p < 0.001). A small measurement bias was observed for the MRS-based FF for both readers (mean difference = −0.3% [reader 1], 0.1% [reader 2]). We found a moderate negative correlation between BMD and the FF (r = −0.411 [reader 1], −0.436 [reader 2]; both p <0.001) with younger men and premenopausal women showing higher correlations. R2* and BMD were more significantly correlated in women than in men, and the highest correlation was observed in postmenopausal women (r = 0.626 [reader 1], 0.644 [reader 2]; both p < 0.001). For predicting osteopenia and osteoporosis, the FF had a higher AUC in men and R2* had a higher AUC in women. The AUC for predicting osteoporosis was highest with a combination of the FF and R2* in postmenopausal women (AUC = 0.872 [reader 1], 0.867 [reader 2]; both p < 0.001). Conclusion The FF and R2* measured using T2*-corrected 6-echo Dixon VIBE imaging can serve as predictors of osteopenia and osteoporosis. R2* might be useful for predicting osteoporosis, especially in postmenopausal women.
Law Reform: What's in it for Women?

In this article, we question whether formal legal processes have been of any value to women and other disadvantaged groups. We suggest that the processes of various law reform agencies might make them particularly unable to respond effectively to issues that affect women. First, we look at the ways in which law reform questions are asked and answered, and at the generally narrow way in which 'terms of reference' are often framed or constructed. Next, we consider the overemphasis on formal outcomes at the expense of attention to process. Finally, we examine the rather problematic relationship that formal law reform agencies have had, at least at times, with research, empirical data and socio-legal methods. Broadly, we argue that insufficient attention is paid to the real lives of those who interact with, and are impacted upon by, the law and legal system. We conclude with a reminder that even if such agencies were more effective, changes to laws can only ever constitute a small part of any profound social change. Yet for all its faults, we imagine that women will continue to turn to the law, as they have for some time now, as one (albeit limited) forum for addressing women's disadvantage.
The nature of brain dysfunction in autism: functional brain imaging studies

Purpose of reviewFunctional magnetic resonance imaging studies have had a profound impact on the delineation of the neurobiologic basis for autism. Advances in fMRI technology for investigating functional connectivity, resting state connectivity, and a default mode network have provided further detail about disturbances in brain organization and brain–behavior relationships in autism to be reviewed in this article. Recent findingsRecent fMRI studies have provided evidence of enhanced activation and connectivity of posterior, or parietal-occipital, networks and enhanced reliance on visuospatial abilities for visual and verbal reasoning in high functioning individuals with autism. Evidence also indicates altered activation in frontostriatal networks for cognitive control, particularly involving anterior cingulate cortex, and altered connectivity in the resting state and the default mode network. The findings suggest that the specialization of many cortical networks of the human brain has failed to develop fully in high functioning individuals with autism. SummaryThis research provides a growing specification of to the neurobiologic basis for this complex syndrome and for the co-occurrence of the signs and symptoms as a syndrome. With this knowledge has come new neurobiologically based opportunities for intervention.
The Institutional Organizational Theory As A New Research Framework For Understanding Contemporary Organizations

Abstract This paper presents basic postulates of the institutional, organizational theory as a new research framework for understanding contemporary organizations structuring and functioning. More and more structures in modern societies are being institutionalized due to changes in technical, social, and political spheres. Organizations in institutionalized sectors do not prove their legitimacy by their rationality and effectiveness, but by implementation of the current institutional pattern. Institutional pattern has its regulatory, normative, and cultural-cognitive components, and it is imposed on organizations within a sector by means of coercive, normative, and mimetic mechanisms. The consequence of implementing of a uniform institutional pattern in the structuring and functioning of all organizations within a sector is organizational isomorphism. The described elements of the institutional, organizational theory are applied in the analysis of structuring and functioning of universities and faculties in the higher education sector in Europe and Serbia. It is shown how the Bologna Higher Education Model, as a typical institutional pattern, impacts structuring and functioning of all universities and faculties in the European higher education area, thereby implicating their organizational isomorphism.
An Empirical Analysis of the Regulation of the Defense Contracting Industry: The Cost Accounting Standards Board

This study addresses the shareholder wealth effects of mandated accounting changes by focusing on a set of changes with the potential to reduce directly firms' operating cashflows. The set of changes arose from the establishment of the Cost Accounting Standards Board (CASB) to promulgate uniform cost accounting standards for firms bidding for defense contracts. Because most large defense contracts are awarded on a cost-reimbursement basis, mandated changes in a firm's cost accounting system translate directly into changes in the firm's present value of future cashflows. The CASB was established primarily on the assumption that firms doing defense business with the United States government used their voluntarily selected cost accounting methods to support reimbursement of costs beyond what they actually incurred in their contract work. Presumably, the establishment of uniform cost accounting standards by the CASB would remove this potential to overstate costs for reimbursement (and thereby overstate the profit margins of contracts). Whether
Predictors of Renal Recovery in Australian and New Zealand end-Stage Renal Failure Patients Treated with Peritoneal Dialysis

Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate the factors affecting recovery and durability of dialysis-independent renal function following commencement of peritoneal dialysis (PD). Design Retrospective, observational cohort study of the Australian and New Zealand PD patient population. Setting Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant (ANZDATA) Registry. Participants The study reviewed all patients in Australia and New Zealand who commenced PD for treatment of end-stage renal failure between 15 May 1963 and 31 December 2004. Main Outcome Measures The primary outcomes examined were recovery of dialysis-independent renal function and time from PD commencement to recovery of renal function. A secondary outcome measure was time to renal death (patient death or recommencement of renal replacement therapy) following recovery of dialysis-independent renal function. Results 24663 patients commenced PD during the study period. Of these, 253 (1%) recovered dialysis-independent renal function. An increased likelihood of recovery was predicted by autoimmune renal disease, hemolytic-uremic syndrome, paraproteinemia, cortical necrosis, renovascular disease, and treatment in New Zealand. A reduced likelihood of recovery was associated with polycystic kidney disease and indigenous race. Analysis of a contemporary subset of 14743 patients in whom complete data were available for body mass index, smoking, and comorbidities yielded comparable results, except that increasing age was additionally associated with a decreased likelihood of recovery. Of the 253 patients who recovered renal function, 151 (60%) recommenced renal replacement therapy and 49 (19%) died within a median period of 226 days (interquartile range 110 – 581 days). The only significant predictors of continued renal survival after renal recovery were autoimmune renal disease and cortical necrosis. Conclusions Recovery of renal function in patients treated with PD is rare and determined mainly by renal disease type and race. In the majority of cases, recovery is short term. The apparently high rate of early patient death or return to dialysis after recovery of renal function on PD raises questions about the appropriateness of discontinuing PD therapy under such circumstances.
Reference data set of volcanic ash physicochemical and optical properties

Uncertainty in the physicochemical and optical properties of volcanic ash particles creates errors in the detection and modeling of volcanic ash clouds and in quantification of their potential impacts. In this study, we provide a data set that describes the physicochemical and optical properties of a representative selection of volcanic ash samples from nine different volcanic eruptions covering a wide range of silica contents (50–80 wt % SiO2). We measured and calculated parameters describing the physical (size distribution, complex shape, and dense‐rock equivalent mass density), chemical (bulk and surface composition), and optical (complex refractive index from ultraviolet to near‐infrared wavelengths) properties of the volcanic ash and classified the samples according to their SiO2 and total alkali contents into the common igneous rock types basalt to rhyolite. We found that the mass density ranges between ρ = 2.49 and 2.98 g/cm3 for rhyolitic to basaltic ash types and that the particle shape varies with changing particle size (d < 100 μm). The complex refractive indices in the wavelength range between λ = 300 nm and 1500 nm depend systematically on the composition of the samples. The real part values vary from n = 1.38 to 1.66 depending on ash type and wavelength and the imaginary part values from k = 0.00027 to 0.00268. We place our results into the context of existing data and thus provide a comprehensive data set that can be used for future and historic eruptions, when only basic information about the magma type producing the ash is known.
Dual photonic electrochemical lab on a chip for lactate detection in continuous flow mode

An integrated lab on a chip that enables simultaneous optical and electrochemical analysis working in continuous flow mode is presented. Both transducers are integrated into a single detection cell and operated simultaneously with no evidences of cross-talk and in agreement with theoretical predictions by Levich equation (electrochemical) and by Lambert-Beer law (absorbance). Their performance is demonstrated by continuous detection of lactate via a double enzymatic reaction with lactate oxidase (LOX) and horseradish peroxidase (HRP). The consumption of the enzymatic reaction mediator (ferrocyanide, [Fe(CN)6]4−) is recorded by amperometry, while the product (ferricyanide, [Fe(CN)6]3−) is quantified by absorbance. The ability to quantify reagent and product simultaneously increases the robustness of the system by making it self-verifying, in addition to the inherent advantages of microfluidic devices.