Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Crosslinguistic Study of Language Acquisition

These two volumes contain 16 chapters together with an editorial introduction. One of the papers in Volume II is also by Slobin and he is coauthor of the chapter on Turkish in Volume I. Volume I is oriented towards the acquisition of specific languages (namely, English, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Kaluli, Polish, Romance [with special reference to French], Samoan, Turkish, American Sign language), whereas the second focuses on theoretical issues. MacWhinney's paper in the second volume adds Hungarian to the list of languages from which the data are drawn. It should be obvious that this is an important collection since nothing of this scope and type exists. It is the culmination of some 15 years of research on language acquisition motivated largely by Slobin's notion of the operating principles which guide language acquisition. The contributors address themselves to a common set of issues and sum up the research that has been done on particular languages. At the same time, however, these volumes draw our attention to how few languages we have adequate acquisitional data for. One useful function of this collection is thus to identify lacunae in the literature and to isolate particular problems that require elucidation from a particular type of data. There are still many aspects of acquisition for which we have no data, even in relatively well-investigated languages like English and French. At the moment, cross-linguistic comparison can be realistically carried out for only a handful of constructions and/or categories, for example, passives, locative prepositions, relative clauses. And even for features that have been extensively studied, there is often little agreement across different studies. The subsystems chosen for cross-linguistic comparison are generally biased towards the typological distinctions made within Indo-European languages. Thus, not surprisingly, there have been no comparative studies of children's acquisition of switch reference systems, as far as I know. The evidence presented from languages like Japanese, Samoan, and Kaluli indicate too how biased our notions are of what children's language is like. Linguistics generally refer to the early stages of child language as telegraphic because much that would have to be present in the presumed adult equivalent has not been expressed. However, in other languages ellipsis is the norm. As Ochs (808) points out, in Samoan the relative nonexpression of major constituents is a sign of competence, since the presence of a subject or object would represent a marked strategy of expression. In English, however, telegraphic speech is indicative of incompetence. In still other cases, like Turkish, child speech is not telegraphic because children acquire most of the inflectional system by 2 years of age or earlier. Although utterances are short
Intrinsic oscillatory activity arising within the electrically coupled AII amacrine–ON cone bipolar cell network is driven by voltage‐gated Na+ channels

• In mouse models for retinal degeneration, photoreceptor death leads to membrane oscillation in the remnant AII amacrine–ON cone bipolar cell network through an unknown mechanism. • We found such oscillations require voltage‐gated Na+ channels and gap junctions but not hyperpolarization‐activated currents (Ih). • Na+ channels are expressed predominantly in AII amacrine cells and Ih in ON cone bipolar cells, and appear to interact via gap junctions to shape oscillations. • Similar intrinsic oscillations arose in the wild‐type (wt) AII amacrine–ON cone bipolar cell network when photoreceptor inputs to bipolar cells were pharmacologically occluded. • Computational modelling captures experimental findings when a low level of cellular heterogeneity is introduced in the coupled network. • These unique insights into the cellular mechanisms underlying spontaneous activity in the degenerating retina might aid in designing the most effective strategies to restore vision using retinal prosthesis.
The Reorganization Times of Bite-Block Vowels

Abstract This investigation attempts to determine, via classical reaction-time techniques, whether speakers require longer times to initiate the production of so-called ‘bite-block’ vowels than they do for normal vowels. The results suggest that speakers do spend measurable amounts of time in neurophysiological reorganization for such vowels. These results are discussed in terms of some current models for speech motor control.
Dietary omega-3 fatty acids and ganglion cell function.

PURPOSE Diet-induced deficiencies in Omega-3 (omega-3) fatty acids are well known to alter photoreceptor function. In this study, the broader functional changes in a diversity of retinal neurons were considered. METHODS Sprague-Dawley dams were fed either omega-3-sufficient (omega-3(+), n = 21) or -deficient (omega-3(-), n = 19) diets 5 weeks before conception, with the pups continued on the mothers' diet. After 20 weeks of age, electroretinograms (ERGs) were recorded by using protocols that isolate separate cellular generators, including; photoreceptors (PIII), ON-bipolar cells (PII), and ganglion/amacrine cells (STR). At the brightest energies, rod and cone responses were isolated with a paired-flash paradigm. Retinal tissue (omega-3(+), n = 5; omega-3(-), n = 5) was harvested at 23 weeks of age for fatty acid assays with thin layer and gas liquid chromatography. RESULTS Omega-3 deficiency caused a 48.6% decrease in total retinal docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). This change induced significant amplitude decreases only in the rod PII (-8.2%) and positive (p)STR components (-27.4%), with widespread delays in all signals (PIII 5.7%, PII 13.6%, pSTR 7.6%, and negative [n]STR 8.3%). Omega-3 deficiency exerted its greatest effects on signals originating in the inner retina (pSTR). CONCLUSIONS Increasing dietary omega-3 has beneficial effects across the retina, with the greatest improvement occurring in ganglion cell function.
Mind boggling! Considering the possibilities of brain gym in learning to play an instrument

This paper is one of the first presentations of research into brain gym's effectiveness in learning musical instruments. Brain gym (or Edu-K) is the popular, over-arching name for a system of exercises, approaches, and techniques intended to improve mental and physical performance. We explain the basic concepts and activities of brain gym and review the literature already published in other disciplines. We also track the short-term progress and experience of five instrumentalists when coached in brain gym. After one week, every participant rated brain gym as having a positive effect upon their playing. We also found that every participant had a more positive opinion of brain gym than they had prior to the experiment. While the findings are purely qualitative, they do suggest that brain gym has the potential to be an effective tool for music learning, and we encourage further research.
Preparation of Novel Poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate-coglycidyl methacrylate)-Grafted Core-Shell Magnetic Chitosan Microspheres and Immobilization of Lactase

Poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-glycidyl methacrylate)-grafted magnetic chitosan microspheres (HG-MCM) were prepared using reversed-phase suspension polymerization method. The HG-MCM presented a core-shell structure and regular spherical shape with poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-glycidyl methacrylate) grafted onto the chitosan layer coating the Fe3O4 cores. The average diameter of the magnetic microspheres was 10.67 μm, within a narrow size distribution of 6.6–17.4 μm. The saturation magnetization and retentivity of the magnetic microspheres were 7.0033 emu/g and 0.6273 emu/g, respectively. The application of HG-MCM in immobilization of lactase showed that the immobilized enzyme presented higher storage, pH and thermal stability compared to the free enzyme. This indicates that HG-MCM have potential applications in bio-macromolecule immobilization.
From Tree Unitarity to Top Quark Physics in 5D Higgsless Models

In five dimensional models of Higgsless electroweak symmetry breaking, tree level unitarity in gauge boson scattering is restored by the exchange of gauge boson Kaluza-Klein modes instead of a Higgs boson. Unitarity of scattering amplitudes involving top quarks requires also the KaluzaKlein modes of the third family quarks. It is shown that the relevant unitarity cancellations are consistent with gauge symmetry breaking by boundary conditions. These results are used to constrain the couplings of the top quark to Kaluza-Klein modes and the implications for collider phenomenology are discussed.
Spatial vision in the echinoid genus Echinometra

SUMMARY Although eyes are generally considered necessary for image resolution, a diffuse photoreceptive system with directional sensitivity may also have this ability. Two species of the echinoid genus Echinometra were tested for spatial vision by examining their ability to locate and move towards targets of different sizes. The echinoids were significantly oriented (P<0.0001) towards a target with an angular width of 33° (0.3 sr) but were not oriented to targets with angular widths of 26° and 16°. This ability is probably due to the blocking of off-angle light by the spines, which have approximately the correct spacing for the observed resolution. Spatial vision is advantageous for echinoids of this genus because they leave and return to small dark shelters. This first demonstration of spatial vision in an echinoderm sheds further light on the complex optical structures and photobehaviors found in this phylum.
Serum MMPs 7–9 and their inhibitors during glucocorticoid and anti-TNF-α therapy in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease

Abstract Objectives. In inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) participate in intestinal tissue damage and regenerative processes. MMP activity is inhibited by tissue inhibitors of MMPs (TIMPs) and plasma inhibitor, α2-macroglobulin (α2M). We evaluated serum MMPs, their inhibitors and markers of neutrophil activity, myeloperoxidase (MPO) and human neutrophil elastase (HNE), during glucocorticoid (GC) and anti-TNF-α therapies in pediatric IBD, in aim to find new tools for assessment of therapeutic response. Methods. Serum samples were collected before and within a month after the start of therapy with oral GC (n = 19) or anti-TNF-α agent (n = 16), and from 32 pediatric control patients. Serum levels of MMP-7, MMP-9, TIMP-1, TIMP-2, α2M, MPO, and HNE were analyzed with enzyme-linked immunoabsorbent assays (ELISA) and MMP-8 by immunofluorometric assay (IFMA). Disease activity was monitored with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), CRP, fecal calprotectin (FC), and physician's global assessment of clinical disease activity (PGA). Results. In IBD, pretreatment serum MMP-7, MMP-8, MMP-9, α2M, MPO, and HNE were elevated compared with controls. During GC therapy, MMP-7, TIMP-1, and MMP-7/TIMP-2 decreased (all p < 0.05). During anti-TNF-α therapy, MMP-7 decreased (p = 0.063), but remained higher than that after GC therapy (p < 0.05). α2M (p < 0.05) and HNE (p < 0.05) increased, the former higher than that in GC-treated patients. The levels of MMPs and their inhibitors did not markedly associate with inflammatory markers in blood or feces. Conclusions. In pediatric IBD, serum MMP-7 mirrors disease activity, and together with TIMP-1, reflects GC therapy response. α2-Macroglobulin expression parallels the anti-TNF-α response.
Automated testing in the Czech Republic: the current situation and issues

The paper brings an overview of the situation in automated testing in the Czech Republic by the beginning of 2014 and analyzes the trend. The results can be, under certain conditions, generalized to the Middle-European region. The analyzed data are collected from a survey of 28 Czech and Slovak professionals in the automated testing, having together 122 years of experience from 147 projects in total. In the survey we focus on the major aspects of the discipline: the economic point of view and technical state of the art.
The Perspectives Browser: Exploratory Data Analysis for Everyone

Web search engines have gained tremendous audiences for information retrieval from unstructured documents. The number of structured and semi-structured documents available on the web is also huge, and collections of these are more amenable to data mining. Yet there has been no similar explosion of interest in this kind of exploration. Finding patterns in databases of political contributions, pollution and environmental data, or hospital and school performance would surely interest many citizens. The Perspectives Browser is intended to support this kind of exploration for users with little or no training in statistics or programming. Given an “advanced search” type query, it visualizes dependencies on the query of up to 30 variables. In preliminary studies, participants found interesting three-variable dependencies in an art collection. We concentrate on image databases because the content can be concisely summarized, but the dependency visualization applies to any hierarchically organized nominal or ordinal variables.
Expanding the Motivation Construct in Language Learning

Recent reviews by Crookes & Schmidt (1991), Dornyei (1994), and Oxford and Shearin (1994) have suggested that research concerned with motivation in second language acquisition would benefit from a consideration of motivational constructs from other research areas. The present study addresses this issue by investigating the relation of a number of new measures of motivation such as persistence, attention, goal specificity, and causal attributions to each other, to existing measures of attitudes and motivation, and to indices of achievement in French courses. A sample of 75 students in a francophone secondary school completed various motivational and attitudinal measures, and subsequently wrote a French essay. Their final grades in the French course were later obtained from the school records. Support was found for a LISREL structural equation model linking different aspects of motivation with language attitudes, French language dominance, and French achievement. It was concluded that the new motivational measures add to our understanding of motivation in language learning.
Molecular Regulation of Urothelial Renewal and Host Defenses during Infection with Uropathogenic Escherichia coli * 210

Uropathogenic Escherichia coli(UPEC), the principal cause of urinary tract infection in women, attaches to the superficial facet cell layer of the bladder epithelium (urothelium) via its FimH adhesin. Attachment triggers exfoliation of bacteria-laden superficial facet cells, followed by rapid reconstitution of the urothelium through differentiation of underlying basal and intermediate cells. We have used DNA microarrays to define the molecular regulators of urothelial renewal and host defense expressed in adult C57Bl/6 female mice during the early phases of infection with isogenic virulent (FimH+) or avirulent (FimH−) UPEC strains. The temporal evolution and cellular origins of selected responses were then characterized by real time quantitative reverse transcriptase-PCR, in situ hybridization, and immunohistochemical analyses. Well before exfoliation is evident, FimH-mediated attachment suppresses transforming growth factor-β (Bmp4) and Wnt5a/Ca2+ signaling to promote subsequent differentiation of basal/intermediate cells. The early transcriptional responses to attachment also include induction of regulators of proliferation (e.g. epidermal growth factor family members), induction of the ETS transcription factor Elf3, which transactivates genes involved in epithelial differentiation and host defense (inducible nitric-oxide synthase), induction of modulators, and mediators of pro-inflammatory responses (e.g. Socs3, Cebp/δ, Bcl3, and CC/CXC chemokines), induction of modulators of apoptotic responses (A20), and induction of intermediate cell tight junction components (claudin-4). Both early and late phases of the host response exhibit remarkable specificity for the FimH+ strain and provide new insights about the molecular cascade mobilized to combat UPEC-associated urinary tract infection.
Using the Minnesota Handwriting Assessment and Handwriting Checklist in Screening First and Second Graders' Handwriting Legibility

The purpose of this study was to determine appropriate screening tools for school-based therapists to use in assessing handwriting difficulties in children. Using the Minnesota Handwriting Assessment (MHA), this study examines the ranges of legibility of handwriting in typically-developing first and second grade students. Also, it evaluated whether the Handwriting Checklist that documents students' posture, tool use, grasp, and other components during the writing task accurately predicts legibility. Regression analyses found that the four Handwriting Checklist variables accounted for 23% of the variance in the legibility variable on the MHA test.
The motivational effects of thinking and worrying about the effects of smoking cigarettes

We tested a strategy to encourage cigarette smokers to think more frequently about the negative consequences of smoking, reasoning that increased thought might lead to greater worry and motivation to quit. College students who smoked daily were randomly assigned to one of three conditions in which they wore watches for one week that sounded an alarm randomly four times each day. When alerted, the students read one of eight cards that either had a written statement about studying (control condition), a statement about the negative effects of smoking behaviour (text condition), or a negative smoking statement accompanied by a picture (e.g., a blackened lung; image condition). Measures collected at week's end revealed that the smoking cards had no effects on perceived risk, but they increased worry and reports of intrusive thoughts, and had a small but reliable effect on plans to quit. Correlational data also supported the relationship between worry and motivation to quit, and we discuss the possible benefits of “normal” worrying and strategies for capitalising on the worry–motivation relationship to encourage smokers to abandon cigarettes.
The relationship between cognitive and physical performance: MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging.

BACKGROUND The relationship between change in cognitive and physical performance has yet to be fully understood. Because aging decreases the ability to learn new information while preserving more established knowledge, this article examines whether the association between change in cognitive and physical performance depends on the nature of the physical task. METHODS Data from the MacArthur Research Network on Successful Aging Community Study--a longitudinal three-site, cohort study of high-functioning, disability-free Americans aged 70 to 79 in 1988 (reinterviewed in 1991 and 1995)--are used for this investigation. We examine the association between change in cognitive performance and two categories of physical performance: novel/attentional demanding physical tasks (e.g., standing on a single leg) or routine physical tasks (e.g., walking at a normal pace). Change in physical performance (over 7 years) is regressed on change in cognitive performance (over the same period) controlling for baseline cognitive ability, demographic factors, health status, and behavioral characteristics. RESULTS The findings suggest that declines in cognitive performance are associated with declines in both novel/attentional demanding and routine physical tasks. In addition to decline in cognition, gender, prevalent health conditions (e.g., cancer, high blood pressure, and the fracture of a hip), and smoking behavior are associated with decline in performance on some physical tasks. CONCLUSIONS The findings suggest that the successful execution of physical tasks demands cognitive processes regardless of the nature of the task. Researchers using performance-based measures of physical functioning should pay particular attention to the cognitive capacities of their subjects and how these might influence their assessment.
Adaptation of the BG‐Sentinel trap to capture male and female Aedes albopictus mosquitoes

In recent years, the remarkable spread of Aedes albopictus (Skuse) (Diptera: Culicidae) throughout the world has drawn attention to this hitherto poorly studied species, particularly after its role in outbreaks of chikungunya fever in the western Indian Ocean and in Italy. Variants of sterile insect technique (SIT), including the release of transgenic males with a dominant lethal gene (RIDL), have been proposed in the search for new and innovative methods of control. Knowledge of male dispersal, mating behaviour and longevity will be critical to the success of this approach. We present an effective and practical method for trapping both male and female Ae. albopictus using a mouse‐baited BG‐Sentinel trap.
Depressive Experiences Questionnaire: Does It Measure Maladaptive and Adaptive Forms of Dependency?

In this study we investigated the distinction between neediness and connectedness as measured using the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ; Blatt, D’Afflitti, & Quinlan, 1976) by examining the association between these personality scales and: (1) depression severity, (2) the domains and facets of the Five Factor Model of Personality (FFM; Costa & McCrae, 1985, 1992), and (3) attachment style in a university student sample and in a clinical sample of depressed patients. In the student sample, both neediness and connectedness were related to depression severity; however, the association was stronger for neediness. No relationship was found between these personality scales and symptom severity in the clinical sample. Differences between neediness and connectedness emerged in their relationship to personality and attachment style. In both samples, neediness was predictive of a more psychopathological personality profile and attachment style than was connectedness. The results support the argument that DEQ connectedness assesses a less maladaptive form of dependency than does neediness.
Role of lectins in plant-microorganism interactions: I. Binding of soybean lectin to rhizobia.

Highly purified soybean lectin (SBL) was labeled with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC-SBL) or tritium ((3)H-SBL) and repurified by affinity chromatography. FITC-SBL was found to bind to living cells of 15 of the 22 Rhizobium japonicum strains tested. The lectin did not bind to cells of the other seven R. japonicum strains, or to cells of any of the nine Rhizobium strains tested which do not nodulate soybean. The binding of the lectin to the SBL-positive strains of R. japonicum was shown to be specific and reversible by hapten inhibition with d-galactose or N-acetyl-d-galactosamine.The lectin-binding properties of the SBL-positive R. japonicum strains were found to change substantially with culture age. The percentage of cells in a population exhibiting fluorescence after exposure to FITC-SBL varied between 0 and 70%. The average number of SBL molecules bound per cell varied between 0 and 2 x 10(6). While most strains had their highest percentage of SBL-positive cells and maximum number of SBL-binding sites per cell in the early and midlog phases of growth, one strain had a distinctly different pattern. The SBL-negative strains did not bind lectin at any stage of growth.Quantitative binding studies with (3)H-SBL indicated that the affinity constant for binding of SBL to its receptor sites on R. japonicum is approximately 4 x 10(7)m(-1). Many of the binding curves were biphasic. An inhibitor of SBL binding was found to be present in R. japonicum culture filtrates.