Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Use of mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences to determine the origin of captive Asian tapirs Tapirus indicus: implications for conservation

Populations of the Endangered Asian tapir Tapirus indicus in Thailand have been severely fragmented and isolated and may be facing a high risk of extinction. Their genetic diversity and population viability remains unknown. The main aim of this study was to assess the genetic diversity of the Asian tapir using the complete mitochondrial cytochrome b gene (1140 bp). We col- lected 31 blood samples from captive individuals. Two polymorphic sites were found, contributing to 3 maternal lineages: Ti-1 (n = 15), Ti-2 (n = 11), and Ti-3 (n = 5). Comparative analysis with GenBank sequences of other Asian tapirs found another 17 variable sites. These results suggest that there may be up to 7 distinct haplotypes of T. indicus. Furthermore, the pattern of the haplotype distribution corresponded to natural geographic boundaries, including the Isthmus of Kra and the Malacca Strait. One unique haplotype found in Sumatra was genetically distinct from 3 haplotypes found in Thailand and 3 haplotypes from Malaysia. One haplotype shared between Thai and Malaysian populations indicated a possible origin in the tropical rainforest along the Thai-Malay border. In general, the diverged geographic distribution of these haplotypes illustrates the phylogeographic history of the family Tapiridae (T. indicus, T. terrestris, T. pinchaque, and T. bairdii) based on our 963 bp cytochrome b sequences. These baseline genetic data have the potential to enhance effective management of tapirs held in captive breeding programs. However, there is still an urgent need to identify and maintain the genetic diversity of these distinct populations in the wild.
In Vivo Anti-malarial Tests of Nigella sativa (Black Seed) Different Extracts

Nigella sativa (black seed) seeds have been used as a traditional medicine for the treatment of a variety of sicknesses including parasitic diseases. Intraperitoneal and oral administrations of ethanol, chloroform and aqueous seed extracts (50, 100, 200 and 400 I¼L kg-1) of N. sativa, were screened in the 4-day suppressive assays for their anti-malarial properties against Plasmodium berghei in mice. Both intraperitoneal and oral treatments of the seeds extracts showed suppression activities in all groups of mice with the highest values were noted by the 100 and 200 I¼L kg-1 doses of the ethanol extract and by the 100 I¼L kg-1 dose of the chloroform extract which significantly (p
Where Sustainable Transport and Social Exclusion Meet: Households Without Cars and Car Dependence in Great Britain

Abstract A secondary analysis of the British National Travel Survey for the years 2002–2010 shows that the composition of the group of carless households is a good indicator of the level of car dependence in a local area: indeed, while non-car ownership in peripheral and rural areas very often correspond to a marginal socio-demographic situation, this is less and less true as one moves towards larger urban areas. Similarly, while in sparse areas most households without cars are either virtually immobile or reliant on car lifts, in large urban areas the ‘mobility gap’ between car-owning and carless households is considerably smaller, as the latter are able to use modal alternatives to the car. These findings are interpreted with reference to an integrated theoretical framework, showing how changes in land use and the environmental and social impacts of increasing motorization are intimately linked. Notably, the consequences of the self-reinforcing cycle of car dependence on two forms of car-related transport disadvantage (car deprivation and forced car ownership) are highlighted. Overall, the article highlights how the socio-demographic composition and the travel behaviour of carless households vary systematically across different types of area: this has interesting implications for sustainable transport policy and research.
New trends in rural community development practice in Africa : The case of Cameroon ’ s grassfield rural development project

This paper examines a new trend in rural community development in Cameroon using the Grassfield Rural Development Project, to highlight the challenges of the participatory approach in an African context. There is an on-going debate about the future of the rural sector in developing countries, centred on implementation of participatory projects to alleviate poverty and deteriorating rural living conditions. Using data from project documents and evaluations, participant observation and interviews with key stakeholders, this paper examines project outcomes achieved in the priority communities that underwent the new policy implemented between 2004 and 2010. The project provides a new approach to engage the state and local government stakeholders in strategic decisions on long-term rural development. Achievements are evident in community infrastructure (classrooms, halls, feeder roads, improved water schemes, slaughter slabs, rural radio), and also in social capital and enhanced leadership. However, challenges remain in the implementation of participatory projects; and dependence on external sources of funding community projects persist, due to hash economic constraints and long-term neglect in providing rural areas with quality services.
Simulated driving: The added value of dynamic testing in the assessment of visuo‐spatial neglect after stroke

Background Visuo‐spatial neglect (VSN) is generally assessed with neuropsychological paper‐and‐pencil tasks, which are often not sensitive enough to detect mild and/or well‐compensated VSN. It is of utmost importance to develop dynamic tasks, resembling the dynamics of daily living. Objective A simulated driving task was used to assess (1) differences in performance (i.e., position on the road and magnitude of sway) between patients with left‐ and right‐sided VSN, recovered VSN, without VSN, and healthy participants; (2) the relation between average position and VSN severity; and (3) its diagnostic accuracy in relation to traditional tasks. Methods Stroke inpatients were tested with a cancellation task, the Catherine Bergego Scale and the simulated driving task. Results Patients with left‐sided VSN and recovered VSN deviated more regarding position on the road compared to patients without VSN. The deviation was larger in patients with more severe VSN. Regarding diagnostic accuracy, 29% of recovered VSN patients and 6% of patients without VSN did show abnormal performance on the simulated driving task. The sensitivity was 52% for left‐sided VSN. Right‐sided VSN was not well detected, probably due to the asymmetric layout. Conclusions Based on these results, the simulated driving task should not be the only task to assess VSN, especially in its current form. Given the heterogenic nature of VSN, the assessment should always consist of several tasks varying in nature and complexity and include a dynamic task to detect mild and/or recovered VSN. A symmetric design should be used when designing novel tasks to assess right‐sided VSN.
Barriers and facilitators related to the health care system in spinal cord injury

Background & Aim: The majority of studies on the facilitators and barriers to functioning in spinal cord injury (SCI) focussed on physical and psychosocial barriers/facilitators, with little emphasis on barriers and facilitators related to the health care system. The purpose of the present study was to explore the barriers/facilitators in the health care system to the functioning of persons with SCI. Methods & Materials: The present study was a qualitative descriptive design that was conducted at the Tamale Teaching Hospital in the Northern Region of Ghana. The study employed the purposive sampling technique with the Neurosurgical Unit of the Hospital as an outlet for the selection of the sample. Thirteen participants were interviewed using an interview guide. The sample was determined by saturation and the data was analysed using thematic analysis. Result: Treatment and management issues, health staff issues and health education issues respectively emerged as the main themes of the present study. Sub-themes such as long-term analgesic use, herbal treatment, lack of health education and high cost of treatment emerged as barriers to functioning of persons with SCI. While physiotherapy and health education were identified as facilitators to functioning, surgery emerged as both a barrier and a facilitator to functioning. Conclusion: Addressing the barriers related to the health care system on the functioning of persons with SCI and improving on the few existing facilitators to functioning would help improve the general wellbeing of persons with SCI and also assist in their adjustment to the injury.
IQ of Children Growing Up in Children's Homes: A Meta-Analysis on IQ Delays in Orphanages

In this meta-analysis of 75 studies on more than 3,888 children in 19 different countries, the intellectual development of children living in children's homes (orphanages) was compared with that of children living with their (foster) families. Children growing up in children's homes showed lower IQ's than did children growing up in a family (trimmed d = 0.74). The age at placement in the children's home, the age of the child at the time of assessment, and the developmental level of the country of residence were associated with the size of the delays. Children growing up in children's homes show a substantial lower level of IQ (average IQ of 84) than their peers reared in (foster) families (average IQ of 104), and the difference amounted to 20 IQ points. More research is needed to detect the causes of the large IQ delays and to test ways of improving the intellectual development of millions of children in orphanages around the world.
Cross-Sectional Inverse Association of Regular Soy Intake with Insulin Resistance in Japanese Elderly

Abstract Levels of isoflavones, biomarkers of soy intake, in 24-hour urine (24U) were inversely related to coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality in the World Health Organization’s Cardiovascular Disease and Alimentary Comparison Study. Considering 24 U isoflavone levels were highest and CHD mortality was lowest in the Japanese, who maintained the world’s longest life expectancy, the association of regular soy intake with cardiometabolic risk was investigated in Japanese adults (20–49 years old) and elderly (50–79 years old). In multivariate analysis adjusted for age, sex, and drug treatments, mean 24 U isoflavone excretion was significantly inversely associated with insulin resistance in the elderly and significantly associated with blood folate and potassium in the elderly, but also positively associated with 24 U salt in the elderly. These findings indicate that low-salt soy should be recommended to improve glucose metabolism in elderly Japanese.
On Optional Deterministic Server Vacations in a Batch Arrival Queueing System with a Single Server Providing First Essential Service Followed by One of the Two Types of Additional Optional Service

We analyze a batch arrival queue with a single server providing first essential service (FES) followed by one of the two types of additional optional service (AOS). After completion of the FES, a customer has the option to leave the system or to choose one of the two types of AOS and as soon as a customer leaves (either after the FES or after completing one of the chosen AOS, the server may take a vacation or may continue staying in the system. The vacation times are assumed to be deterministic and the server vacations are based on Bernoulli schedules under a single vacation policy. We obtain explicit queue size distribution at a random epoch under the steady state. In addition, some important performance measures such as the steady state expected queue size and the expected waiting time of a customer at a random epoch are obtained. Further, some interesting particular cases are also discussed.
Learning Internal Dense But External Sparse Structures of Deep Neural Network

Recent years have witnessed two seemingly opposite developments of deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs). On the one hand, increasing the density of CNNs (e.g. by adding cross-layer connections) achieves higher accuracy. On the other hand, creating sparsity structures (e.g. through regularization and pruning methods) enjoys a more slim network structure. In this paper, we bridge these two by proposing a new network structure with locally dense yet externally sparse connections. This new structure uses dense modules as basic building blocks and then sparsely connects these modules via a novel algorithm during the training process. Experimental results demonstrate that the locally dense yet externally sparse structure could obtain competitive performance on benchmark tasks (CIFAR10, CIFAR100,and ImageNet) while keeping the network structure slim.
On Robust Stability And Sensitivity Of Circadian Rhythms

We develop an approach to robustness analysis of circadian rhythms from the viewpoints of (local) robust stability of periodic trajectories and their period‐sensitivity, based on mathematical models. Our attention is directed to the core molecular model generating circadian rhythms in Drosophila, proposed by Goldbeter [1], for our approach to be illustrated. We consider two cases when the circadian rhythms are subjected to periodic forcing by light/dark (LD) cycles and when the circadian rhythms are under continuous darkness (DD). First, we propose conditions/algorithms for (local) robust stability, and show that the circadian rhythms generated by the core molecular model are (locally) robustly stable, in both LD and DD cases. Second, in DD case, we derive a formula of period sensitivity, and assess effects of (infinitesimal) parameter‐variations on the period of the circadian rhythms.
Additivity of apparent and standardized ileal digestibility of amino acids in wheat, canola meal, and sorghum distillers dried grains with solubles in mixed diets fed to broiler chickens

ABSTRACT An experiment was conducted to investigate which method, apparent ileal digestibility (AID) or standardized ileal digestibility (SID), more accurately predicts the digestibility of crude protein (CP) and amino acids (AA) in mixed diets fed to broiler chickens. Male Ross 308 broiler chickens received a standard starter diet from d 0 to 16 post hatching, thereafter grouped into 8 blocks, based on body weight (BW), of 10 birds/cage, and randomly allotted to 6 diets in a randomized complete block design. The 6 diets consisted of a nitrogen‐free diet, 3 semi‐purified diets, and 2 mixed diets to test the additivity of AID and SID in mixed diets. On d 21 post hatching, digesta from two‐thirds of the distal ileum was collected. Using the determined AID or SID for CP and AA in wheat, canola meal (CM), or sorghum distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), the AID or SID for 2 mixed diets based on wheat‐CM or wheat‐CM‐DDGS were predicted and compared with determined AID or SID, respectively. The results revealed that the predicted SID of CP and AA in the wheat‐CM mixed diet were consistent with determined values except for Asp and Ser, and all the predicted SID of CP and AA were consistent with the determined values in the wheat‐CM‐DDGS mixed diet. The determined AID of Ile, Met, Thr, Val, Ala, Cys, Ser, and Tyr in the wheat‐CM mixed diet were greater (P < 0.05) than predicted AID values. For the wheat‐CM‐DDGS mixed diet, the determined AID of Trp, Cys, and Glu were greater (P < 0.05) than the predicted AID values. However, there were more inconsistencies between the determined and predicted values in AID values for wheat‐CM than the wheat‐CM‐DDGS mixed diet than SID values for both diets. In conclusion, the present study confirmed that the SID of CP and AA was more additive than the AID of CP and AA when a mixed diet contained wheat, CM, and DDGS as protein sources in broiler chickens.
Circulating Tumor Cells in Breast Cancer: Are They Indicative of the State of Disease?

Despite latest advances in the ability to predict recurrence of breast cancer by assays which utilize mRNA transcripts of genes related to proliferation capacity at the molecular level, questions still remain regarding a tumor’s likelihood to metastasize at the whole cellular level, and whether this potential is based upon genetic propensity and /or interaction with the environment? The 21-gene Oncotype DX assay (Genomic Health, Redwood, CA), the 76-genomic-grade Mammaprint assay (Veridex, Rotterdam, Netherlands), and the 2-gene ratio of HOXB13 to IL17R in the Theros assay (Biotheranostics), have been very useful in clinical practice to help determine whether chemotherapy in the adjuvant setting would have a significant impact in decreasing the likelihood of breast tumor recurrence or distant metastastes from breast cancer [1]. The question is posed as to whether following the detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) at the single-cell level after adjuvant treatment may be useful and feasible in determining breast cancer recurrence after treatment, as evidenced in the arena of metastatic breast cancer, as an indicator determining the full response to treatment.
The nitrogen and oxygen abundances in the neutral gas at high redshift

Aims. We study the oxygen and nitrogen abundances in the interstellar medium of high-redshift galaxies. Methods. We use high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio spectra of damped Lyman- α (DLA) systems detected along the line-of-sight to quasars to derive robust abundance measurements from unsaturated metal absorption lines. Results. We present results for a sample of 16 high-redshift DLAs and strong sub-DLAs (log N (H I) > 19.5, 2.4 z abs ± 0.10 for -2.5 -1 and nine systems have [N/O] < -1.15. In the diagram [N/O] versus [O/H], a loose plateau is possibly present at [N/O] ~ -0.9, which is below the so-called primary plateau as seen in local metal-poor dwarf galaxies ([N/O] in the range -0.57 to -0.74). No system is seen above this primary plateau whereas the majority of the systems lie well below with a large scatter. All this suggests a picture in which DLAs undergo successive star-bursts. During such an episode, the [N/O] ratio decreases sharply because of the rapid release of oxygen by massive stars, whereas inbetween two bursts, nitrogen is released by low and intermediate-mass stars with a delay and the [N/O] ratio increases.
Yellow-head virus of Penaeus monodon is an RNA virus

Yellow-head virus (YHV) causes acute infections in Penaeus monodon that result in very high mortahty First reports of the vlrus suggested that the viral core consisted of DNA and that the virus should be classified as a granulosls-type baculovirus However, 3 attempts at DNA extraction with high concentratlons of punfied virus (verified by transmission electron micioscopy, TEM) gave only traces of DNA, which could not be visuahzed by ethidium bromide staining of agarose electrophoresls gels Although selected recombinant clones denved from these pooled DNA traces did not hybridize with host shnmp DNA, they also tailed to react with YHV-~nfected tissue by the In s ~ t u DNA h y b n d ~ z a tion technique Furthermore, negatively stained virions of YHV viewed by TEM were atypical for baculov~ruses and viral assembly IS cytoplasmic Therefore, renewed attempts to extract nuc l e~c acid fiom punfied YHV preparations focused on RNA rather than DNA Hemolymph was collected aseptlcally by syringe from 200 artificially YHV-infected, live shnmp in terminal stages of the disease Purlfled vlrions were prepared by a program of centrifugation culminating In 22 % to 45 , Urografin gradient ultracentrifugation A band at the 30-37% Interval of the gradient gave the cleanest preparation with the highest quantity of vinons By TEM these were enveloped measured 150-170 X 40-50 nm and were surrounded by a f r ~ n g e of knob-hke projections approximately 11 nm in length Nucleic acld was extracted using guan id~um thiocyanate and punfied by CsCl gradient ultracentnfugation High-molecular-weight nucleic acid was obtained which was degraded by RNase-A but not by DNase I Based on morphology of negatively stained virions by TEM and on RNA content YHV resembles rhabdoviruses or coronaviruses, rather than baculoviruses This 1s an important discovery since i t necessitates cDNA preparation in the process to develop a nuc le~c -ac~d probe for YHV detection by the In sjtu or dot blot hybndization techniques
Distinguishing between Consequences of Neglect and Poverty on Problem Behavior among Preschool Children

The aim of this study is to distinguish between consequences of neglect and poverty on problem behavior among preschool children. 72 children randomly chosen from the city of Granada (Andalucia, Spain), have been classified in three homogeneous groups according to demographic variables. Children in Group 1 (24 subjects) lived in slums (poverty) and suffered from neglect. Children in Group 2 lived in the same slums but did not suffer from neglect. Group 3 consisted of children from other neighborhoods of the city and did not suffer from neglect. Behavioral problems were evaluated with the Inventory for Client and Agency Planning (ICAP) behavioral problems scale. 50% of the subjects in Group1 (neglected children) showed internalized behavior problems, and 0% in groups 2 and 3. Also 46% of Group1 showed the externalized one, and 12.5% of Group 2 and 8% of Group 3. It is concluded that neglected pre-school children (1-5 years) showed many behavior problems, mainly internalized and also externalized. However, neither the non-neglected children from a socially deprived environment (poverty), nor the children from the control group showed behavior problems. As a result, we can relate the behavior problems to neglect and not to social status or sociocultural environment.
Synesthetic Associations Between Voice and Gestures in Preverbal Infants: Weak Effects and Methodological Concerns

Adult humans spontaneously associate visual features, such as size and direction of movement, with phonetic properties like vowel quality and auditory pitch. A number of recent studies have claimed that looking time in preverbal infants reveals the same associations, which would indicate that some cross-modal correspondences are the result of perceptual biases. Here we tested 30 infants of age 7-13 months, who were exposed to pairs of audiovisual stimuli presented first sequentially and then side by side. The stimuli consisted of a visual object (computer-animated ball or filmed human hand) moving sinusoidally, vertically, or in a U-shape and accompanied by a sliding voice-like tone. Sequential presentation revealed no preference for either audiovisual synchrony or synesthetic congruency, while side-by-side presentation revealed a small preference for incongruent stimuli. The effect of congruency was similar for the animated ball and filmed human hand. These findings extend the results of previous research on pitch-motion synesthesia in preverbal infants, which used animations and sliding whistles, to more ecologically relevant stimuli such as voice and gestures. If infants and adults share the same preferences for non-arbitrary mappings between manual gestures and intonation, this could indicate that cross-modal correspondences facilitate language acquisition. On the other hand, a critical survey of the field revealed that previous studies of audiovisual cross-modal correspondences in infants suffer from replication failures due to poor robustness of the reported effect with respect to experimental stimuli and testing procedure. We therefore argue that the research on cross-modal correspondences in infants would profit from using alternative testing methods in addition to preferential looking and call for replication of previously reported congruency effects.