Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Self-Reported Features of Sleep, Utilization of Medical Resources, and Socioeconomic Position: A Swedish Population Survey

This study examined aspects of self reported qualities of sleep and daytime functioning attributed to sleep, including the utilization of physician consultations and prescription medications, and their relationships with age, gender, and educational attainment in the Swedish population using telephone interviews of 1,000 random households. Women were twice as likely to use hypnotics and experienced more poor quality sleep and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). Lower educational attainment was associated with twofold increased hypnotic use, life impacts of sleep problems, and EDS, but not dimensions reflecting poor quality sleep. This study demonstrates that educational attainment, gender, and age combine to shape both the attributions of the effects of sleep on wakeful functioning and patterns of using medical resources.
CLIPS-4D: a classifier that distinguishes structurally and functionally important residue-positions based on sequence and 3D data

MOTIVATION The precise identification of functionally and structurally important residues of a protein is still an open problem, and state-of-the-art classifiers predict only one or at most two different categories. RESULT We have implemented the classifier CLIPS-4D, which predicts in a mutually exclusively manner a role in catalysis, ligand-binding or protein stability for each residue-position of a protein. Each prediction is assigned a P-value, which enables the statistical assessment and the selection of predictions with similar quality. CLIPS-4D requires as input a multiple sequence alignment and a 3D structure of one protein in PDB format. A comparison with existing methods confirmed state-of-the-art prediction quality, even though CLIPS-4D classifies more specifically than other methods. CLIPS-4D was implemented as a multiclass support vector machine, which exploits seven sequence-based and two structure-based features, each of which was shown to contribute to classification quality. The classification of ligand-binding sites profited most from the 3D features, which were the assessment of the solvent accessible surface area and the identification of surface pockets. In contrast, five additionally tested 3D features did not increase the classification performance achieved with evolutionary signals deduced from the multiple sequence alignment.
What's Wrong With My Mouse?: Behavioral Phenotyping of Transgenic and Knockout Mice

array of choices available for assaying this behavioral construct, and seeing that there are somewhat murky borders between the constructs ‘anxiety’, ‘fear’ and ‘depression’, he or she will explore the question further with an array of tests, after careful consideration of the idiosyncratic parameters required to elicit interpretable data from each test. Such attention to detail matters in real life, even when highly experienced behavioral-testing laboratories are involved. For example, three groups recently independently produced null mutant mice for the corticotropinreleasing hormone 2 receptor. Each group was obviously interested in testing the effects of this gene deletion on anxiety. The results were published as three back-to-back-to-back papers in Nature Genetics 1‐3 . All three groups tested both male and female mice on a version of the elevated plus-maze anxiety test and reported their reluctance to enter open arms of the maze, the accepted index of anxiety. One group found no difference between knockout and wild type of either sex; one group found greater anxiety in knockouts of both sexes; and the third found greater anxiety in male knockouts only. All three also used an open field test, where reluctance to enter the center of the apparatus was the index of anxiety. Again, three different results were reported: one group found a tendency for greater anxiety in null mutants of both sexes; one found significantly greater anxiety in null mutants; and the third found that null mutant males (but not females) spent significantly more time in the center of the field, but interpreted the result to indicate greater anxiety! The different results could derive from many sources, including: differences in animal husbandry and handling before testing; relatively subtle differences in the test apparatus and test protocols; the specific genetic constructs inserted into embryonic stem cells; the stem-cell source strain (three different substrains of 129 inbred mice were used that are known to vary genetically 4
Distributed under Creative Commons Cc-by 4.0 a Large Scale Test of the Gaming- Enhancement Hypothesis

A growing research literature suggests that regular electronic game play and game-based training programs may confer practically significant benefits to cognitive functioning. Most evidence supporting this idea, the gaming-enhancement hypothesis, has been collected in small-scale studies of university students and older adults. This research investigated the hypothesis in a general way with a large sample of 1,847 school-aged children. Our aim was to examine the relations between young people's gaming experiences and an objective test of reasoning performance. Using a Bayesian hypothesis testing approach, evidence for the gaming-enhancement and null hypotheses were compared. Results provided no substantive evidence supporting the idea that having preference for or regularly playing commercially available games was positively associated with reasoning ability. Evidence ranged from equivocal to very strong in support for the null hypothesis over what was predicted. The discussion focuses on the value of Bayesian hypothesis testing for investigating electronic gaming effects, the importance of open science practices, and pre-registered designs to improve the quality of future work.
The influence of gender beliefs and early exposure to math, science and technology in female degree choices

This research consists of three sections testing the hypothesis that gender roles and gender-stereotyping of certain fields of study could be associated with women choosing traditionally female degree options characterized by lower wages. The analysis is framed within the identity economics framework. In the first chapter, data from the 1970 British Cohort Study supports the hypothesis that teenage girls are more likely to accept gender-equal beliefs when their mother shares these beliefs or she works; and that having gender equal beliefs and developing early mathematical and technological skills either encourage girls to study for high-paying degrees or discourage them from entering female-dominated degrees. The second chapter analyses the responses from an online questionnaire applied to female academics at the University of York. Such survey collected testimonies about their experiences regarding the construction of gender, encouragement and discouragement in mathematics, science and technology at school and the household environments; and their degree choice. Results provide some evidence in favour of the initial hypothesis, but they also show a disassociation between how women perceive the sex-typing of subject fields and their own confidence in their capabilities and tastes. It also suggests that bad experiences with certain subjects are more relevant in keeping women away from high-earnings degrees than the lack of positive experiences. Finally, the third chapter estimates earnings functions and provides a gender wage decomposition using data from the 1970 British Cohort Study at ages 29 and 34. Results do not support the hypothesis that having a high-earnings degree is associated with higher wages for women. Although there is an initial premium, it disappears by age 34. In contrast, working in a high-earnings occupation is positively associated with higher wages, while remaining in female-dominated occupations is negatively associated with wages for women.
The Structure of High Strehl Ratio Point-Spread Functions

We describe the symmetries present in the point-spread function (PSF) of an optical system either located in space or corrected by an adaptive optics (AO) system to Strehl ratios of about 70% and higher. We present a formalism for expanding the PSF to arbitrary order in terms of powers of the Fourier transform of the residual phase error over an arbitrarily shaped and apodized entrance aperture. For traditional unapodized apertures at high Strehl ratios, bright speckles pinned to the bright Airy rings are part of an antisymmetric perturbation of the perfect PSF, arising from the term that is first order in the residual phase error. There are two symmetric second-degree terms. One is negative at the center and, like the first-order term, is modulated by the perfect image's field strength—it reduces to the Maréchal approximation at the center of the PSF. The other is nonnegative everywhere, zero at the image center, and can be responsible for an extended halo—which limits the dynamic range of faint companion detection in the darkest portions of the image. In regimes where one or the other term dominates the speckles in an image, the symmetry of the dominant term can be exploited to reduce the effect of those speckles, potentially by an order of magnitude or more. We demonstrate the effects of both secondary obscuration and pupil apodization on the structure of residual speckles and discuss how these symmetries can be exploited by appropriate telescope and instrument design, observing strategies, and filter bandwidths to improve the dynamic range of high dynamic range AO and space-based observations. Finally, we show that our analysis is relevant to high dynamic range coronagraphy.
The Effect of Peer Observation on the Consumption of Temptation Goods: Experimental Evidence

This paper uses a clean experiment to investigate the impact of peer observation on the consumption decisions of rural households in Thailand. We find that those groups that observe each other show lower within group standard deviation in their decisions. At the same time, we also find that individual choice is influenced by group choice. We find that unfamiliarity with product is counteracted by peer effects. Those in a group that have higher cognitive ability are able to resist peer temptation.
A comparison between hybrid models for classifying Bangla isolated basic characters

Merging Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HoG) features with a typical Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model demonstrates some improvements in Bangla numerals and compound characters classification. Despite the importance of Bangla isolated basic characters, a hybrid model for classifying those characters are still missing. In this work, a hybrid model has been introduced, where the proposed model has been trained and validated with 50 isolated Bangla basic character classes from an open sourced Bangla benchmark dataset. In addition, a comparison between CNN and three hybrid classifiers with different handcrafted features(HoG, Local Binary Patterns (LBP), and All-Pixel) has been shown. Moreover, the hybrid model with HoG feature extraction method outperforms the other classifier models. Hybrid-HoG models demonstrate a maximum accuracy of 83.69% on its 37 iterations, while the CNN model, LBP& All pixel based hybrid classifier models were able to obtain maximum accuracies of 83.64%, 83.62%, and 83.35% respectively.
The Trypanosoma brucei DNA polymerase alpha core subunit gene is developmentally regulated and linked to a constitutively expressed open reading frame.

As an initial step towards the characterization of replicative DNA polymerases of trypanosomes, we have cloned, sequenced and examined the expression of the Trypanosoma (Trypanozoon) brucei brucei gene that encodes the DNA polymerase alpha catalytic core (pol alpha). The protein sequence contains the six conserved regions that have been recognized previously in eukaryotic and viral replicative DNA polymerases. In addition, we have identified a seventh region which appears to be conserved primarily in alpha-type DNA polymerases. The T.brucei DNA pol alpha core N-terminus is 123 and 129 amino acids smaller than that of the human and yeast homologue, respectively. The gene is separated by 386 bp from an upstream open reading frame (ORF) of 442 codons. Stable transcripts of the upstream sequence are detected in both dividing and non-dividing forms, while pol alpha transcripts are detected principally in dividing forms. Allelic copies of the T.brucei pol alpha region exhibit restriction site polymorphisms; one such sequence polymorphism affects the amino acid sequence of the T.brucei DNA pol alpha core. The T.brucei pol alpha region cross-hybridizes weakly with that of T. (Nannomonas) congolense and T. (Duttonella) vivax.
Agents-based modeling for a peer-to-peer MMOG architecture

Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) are becoming a very important part of computer entertainment business. With the recent development of broadband technologies, the increase in the number of players is putting a strong pressure on this type of application. Commonly used clients/server systems don't cope well with scalability, limiting the number of players who can interact with each other, are not robust enough, and might be subject to bottlenecks due to their centralized infrastructure. These systems also force developers to invest enormous amounts of money in hardware and time to design complex software systems. To solve these problems we propose a fully distributed, peer-to-peer architecture for MMOGs.We discuss the issues surrounding MMOGs, the limitations in terms of network infrastructure and the lack of a simulation environment to study and evaluate network architectures and protocols. We use a peer-to-peer (P2P) based architecture and protocol to provide a more scalable, flexible, and robust technology solution than do currently used infrastructures. We conducted the design and implementation of a modular MMOG, called "Time-Prisoners," using a P2P protocol developed in Java and JXTA. The characteristics of P2P overlays enabled us to organize dynamically, and in transparent way for the users, the group of players according to their locations in the virtual world, and allowed the design of a scalable mechanism to distribute the game state to the players and to maintain a consistent world in case of node failures.
Ciprofloxacin affects conformational equilibria of DNA gyrase A in the presence of magnesium ions.

The conformational equilibria of the A subunit of DNA gyrase (GyrA), of its 59 kDa N-terminal fragment (GyrA59) and of the quinolone-resistant Ser-Trp83 mutant (GyrATrp83), were investigated in the presence of mono- and divalent metal ions and ciprofloxacin, a clinically useful antibacterial quinolone. The stability of the proteins was estimated from temperature denaturation, monitoring unfolding with circular dichroism spectroscopy. Two transitions were observed in GyrA and GyrATrp83, which likely reflect unfolding of the N and C-terminal protein domains. Accordingly, one thermal transition is observed for GyrA59. The melting profile of the GyrA subunit is dramatically affected by monovalent and divalent metal ions, both transitions being shifted to lower temperature upon increasing salt concentration. This effect is much more pronounced with divalent ions (Mg(2+)) and cannot be accounted for by changes in ionic strength only. The presence of ciprofloxacin shifts the melting transitions of the wild-type subunit to higher temperatures when physiological concentrations of Mg(2+) are present. In contrast, both the mutant protein and the 59 kDa fragment do not show evidence for quinolone-driven changes. These data suggest that ciprofloxacin binds to the wild-type subunit in an interaction that involves Ser83 of GyrA and that both C and N-terminal domains may be required for effective drug-protein interactions. The bell-shaped dependence of the binding process upon Mg(2+) concentration, with a maximum centred at 3-4 mM [Mg(2+)], is consistent with a metal-ion mediated GyrA-quinolone-interaction. Affinity chromatography data fully support these findings and additionally confirm the requirement for a free carboxylate to elicit binding of the quinolone to GyrA. We infer that the Mg(2+)-GyrA interaction at physiological metal ion concentration could bear biological relevance, conferring more conformational flexibility to the active enzyme. The results obtained in the presence of ciprofloxacin additionally suggest that the Mg(2+)-mediated quinolone binding to the enzyme might be involved in the mechanism of action of this family of drugs.
Limits of Detection of Regional Differences in Vasodilated Flow in Viable Myocardium by First-Pass Magnetic Resonance Perfusion Imaging

Background—Perfusion imaging techniques intended to identify regional limitations in coronary flow reserve in viable myocardium need to identify 2-fold differences in regional flow during coronary vasodilation consistently. This study evaluated the suitability of current first-pass magnetic resonance approaches for evaluating such differences, which are 1 to 2 orders of magnitude less than in myocardial infarction. Methods and Results—Graded regional differences in vasodilated flow were produced in chronically instrumented dogs with either left circumflex (LCx) infusion of adenosine or partial LCx occlusion during global coronary vasodilation. First-pass myocardial signal intensity-time curves were obtained after right atrial injection of gadoteridol (0.025 mmol/kg) with an MRI inversion recovery true-FISP sequence. The area under the initial portion of the LCx curve was compared with that of a curve from a remote area of the ventricle. Relative LCx and remote flows were assessed simultaneously with microspheres. The ratio of LCx and remote MRI curve areas and the ratio of LCx and remote microsphere concentrations were highly correlated and linearly related over a 5-fold range of flow differences (y =0.96 x ±0.07, P <0.0001, r2=0.87). The 95% confidence limits for individual MRI measurements were ±35%. Regional differences of ≥2-fold were consistently apparent in unprocessed MR images. Conclusions—Clinically relevant regional reductions in vasodilated flow in viable myocardium can be detected with 95% confidence over the range of 1 to 5 times resting flow. This suggests that MRI can identify and quantify limitations in perfusion reserve that are expected to be produced by stenoses of ≥70%.
On-line monitoring of the keyhole welding pool in variable polarity plasma arc welding

Abstract This paper presents a technique to monitor the weld penetration in real time by the front-side image sensing of the keyhole welding pool in variable polarity plasma arc welding (VPPAW) of a 6061 aluminium alloy. A novel optical system is developed to acquire the keyhole welding pool images from two sides of the plasma arc welding torch. The geometric sizes of the visible keyhole can be accurately obtained by using the developed image-processing algorithm. The variation in sizes of the visible keyhole has a close relationship with the real diameter of the keyhole. An artificial neural network (ANN) model is established to describe the relationship between the keyhole diameter and the geometrical sizes of the keyhole welding pool obtained from the image.
A Role for P-Glycoprotein in Regulating Cell Death

P-glycoprotein (P-gp) is an energy dependent drug pump responsible for multidrug resistance (MDR) in human cancers. While it is irrefutable that P-gp can efflux xenobiotics out of cells, the biological function of P-gp in multicellular organisms has yet to be firmly established. The question of what, if anything, P-gp does when not effluxing drugs has been raised by recent reports indicating that P-gp may regulate apoptosis, chloride channel activity, cholesterol metabolism and immune cell function. There is now a lively debate regarding the possible role of P-gp in regulating cell differentiation, proliferation and survival. P-gp has been shown by many different investigators to function as an energy dependent drug pump and the fact that the molecule is highly conserved throughout evolution points to an indispensable function. However, the recent observations that P-gp may have other cellular functions is also compelling. The unexpected findings that P-gp is expressed on CD34+ stem cells, dendritic cells, NK cells and cytotoxic T lymphocytes raises the possibility that P-gp may play a role in hemopoietic development and immune cell function. It is conceivable that important progenitor cells would have mechanisms in place to protect them against apoptotic stimuli and it is tempting to speculate that P-gp could help serve this purpose. It is therefore possible that P-gp may serve to protect immune cells against stress-induced or bystander lysis in the hostile environment of sites of inflammation.
COMMENTARIES on: Why Emotion Names and Experiences Don't Neatly Pair

In the target article, Sabini and Silver (this issue) make the important point that emotional words and emotional experiences do not have a one-to-one map ping. In making this assertion, they join a long list of re searchers and theorists including Kagan (1988), Lang (1993) and others who have reached the same conclu sions albeit for quite different reasons. Sabini and Silver assert that there are fewer emotional experiences than there are emotional words. Kagan has claimed essen tially the opposite. Kagan noted that psychologists are wont to use basic emotion labels such as fear to refer to a very wide range of phenomena. To continue with this ex ample, the state experienced by a rodent in response to a simple tone that has been paired with shock is called "fear. " That same word is used to describe the state expe rienced by a person as she enters a doctor's office to learn the outcome of a breast biopsy. Although, there may in deed be some superficial resemblance between these states, it is also clear that they differ in important ways that are likely to involve different underlying neurobiological systems. In fact, when direct measures of brain function are examined, such different kinds of fear are associated with different patterns of brain activ ity (see e.g., Davidson & Irwin, 1999 for review), yet psychologists often use the same word to refer to these very different states. Even though reaching the same conclusion as Sabini and Silver, Kagan and others (e.g., Davidson, 1993) believe that there are far fewer emotion words than there are emotion experiences and the use of the same word to refer to very different states that are elicited in vastly different contexts is hazardous and po tentially misleading. Lang's perspective on emotion offers a different view on why emotion words and emotion experiences often diverge. Lang (1993) has suggested that there are three major domains that contribute to emotion-ac tion, physiology, and subjective experience. Within each of these domains, many further distinctions can be made but just among these three domains, Lang and his colleagues have argued that there are imperfect as sociations at best, since each reflects different features of emotion that do not necessarily cohere (Bradley & Lang, 2000; Lang, Levin, Miller, & Kozak, 1983). For instance, Lang et al. (1983) observed the relative inde pendence among verbal report of affect, overt behavior and psychophysiological measures in response to cer tain commonly used methods of emotion induction. Bradley and Lang (2000) report that in response to mild to moderate elicitors of emotion, covariation be tween the response systems explains 15% of the vari
Wikipedia-based Learning Path Generation

We describe a method for automatic generation of a learning path for education or self- education. As a knowledge base, our method uses the semantic structure view from Wikipedia, leveraging on its broad variety of covered concepts. We evaluate our results by comparing them with the learning paths suggested by a group of teachers. Our algorithm is a useful tool for instructional design process.