Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cognition, psychopathology and the role of genetic variation in Catechol-O-Methyltransferase in children at increased risk of schizophrenia

In this thesis I explored cognition, psychopathology and the role of Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) in children at increased risk of schizophrenia with the aim of making a contribution to our understanding of the processes that take place early in the development of psychosis. Two samples were studied. The first sample came from the population-based Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) where I examined the relationships between a priori selected cognitive domains and psychotic experiences (PEs). The results indicated that impaired processing speed and attention were related to greater risk of PEs in children, with processing speed being a key cognitive feature. Moreover, the relationships between cognition and later occurrence of PEs were similar to those that have previously been reported between cognition and schizophrenia. I also examined whether genetic variation in COMT was associated with PEs indirectly through cognition and anxiety disorders. The findings showed that COMT was indirectly associated with PEs through processing speed, IQ and attention. The second sample comprised children with 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11.2DS). I examined the nature and prevalence of psychopathology and cognitive dysfunction in the sample and their siblings and to what extent the children’s intellectual impairment indirectly influences the risk of psychopathology associated with the deletion. There were high rates of psychopathology and cognitive impairments in children with 22q11.2DS. However, I found no evidence for an indirect association between the deletion and the risk of psychopathology through cognition. Finally, there was no evidence that COMT is related to the susceptibility of children with 22q11.2DS to cognitive and psychiatric problems. These findings have potentially important implications for our understanding of the development of psychosis during childhood and they also show that using different research designs to investigate specific aims in samples at increased risk enables the researcher to widen their scope of interpretation.
A Model of Adaptive Control of Promotional Spending

Information about sales response is collected by performing an experiment. The experimental results are used to update a sales response model. The promotion rate is chosen to maximize expected profit in the next time period. The cycle is repeated. The model employs a quadratic sales response function with a parameter that changes according to a first order, autoregressive process. The optimal adaptive system involves exponential smoothing of the experimental results.
PHP vs. Python vs. Ruby { The web scripting language shootout

Scripting languages became increasingly popular in web ap- plication programming in the last years. This paper tries to nd dier- ences, advantages and drawbacks of the three most popular languages nowadays: PHP, Python and Ruby. It is obvious that all of them have their lobby and support, so it is a dicult task to state objective facts that satisfy a scientic approach. The languages will be compared con- cerning history, evolution, popularity, syntax, semantics, features, secu- rity and performance in web application environments. In the end a nal conclusion recommends a language that looks most promising.
Local properties of the surface layer(s) of BiFeO3 single crystals

The surface of BiFeO3 single crystals has been characterized at the local level using several AFM-based techniques. We have observed the presence of two different epilayers showing electrical and mechanical properties different from those of the bulk: a ferroelectrically “dead” outer skin of 5 nm sitting upon a subsurface layer that displays an extremely fine pattern of hierarchical self-ordered nanodomains. Based on the size of the nanodomains and applying a Kittel-like analysis, we argue that the nanotwinned region should be confined in a layer less than a micron deep. The superficial phase transition at T* = 275 °C is restricted to the outer skin layer (the “dead” layer), while the nanotwinned layer is insensitive to this transition. In view of the photovoltaic properties and spin-dependent transport of domain walls in BiFeO3, the existence of nanodomains (and thus a high density of domain walls) in bulk single crystals is likely to be relevant for understanding their functional properties.
Targeting Pronunciation: Communicating Clearly in English

1. Improving Your Pronunciation 2. Pronunciation Basics 3. Stressing Syllabus and Speaking Clearly 4. More Intonation Patterns: More Words 5. Speech Rhythm: Stress and Unstress 6. Vowels and Speech Music 7. Sing Along: The Melody of Speech 8. The Speech Pathway-What"s Happening Where? 9. Important Endings 10. More about Vowels and Consonants 11. More about Conversational Speech 12. More about Thought Groups Appendixes
2D Shape Classification and Retrieval

We present a novel correspondence-based technique for efficient shape classification and retrieval. Shape boundaries are described by a set of (ad hoc) equally spaced points - avoiding the need to extract "landmark points". By formulating the correspondence problem in terms of a simple generative model, we are able to efficiently compute matches that incorporate scale, translation, rotation and reflection invariance. A hierarchical scheme with likelihood cut-off provides additional speed-up. In contrast to many shape descriptors, the concept of a mean (prototype) shape follows naturally in this setting. This enables model based classification, greatly reducing the cost of the testing phase. Equal spacing of points can be defined in terms of either perimeter distance or radial angle. It is shown that combining the two leads to improved classification/ retrieval performance.
Mobility, Microtubule Nucleation and Structure of Microtubule-organizing Centers in Multinucleated Hyphae of Ashbya gossypii

We used live imaging and EM to study migration of multiple nuclei in A. gossypii. Three types of nuclear movements, oscillation, rotation, and bypassing, depend on cytoplasmic microtubules while a fourth type, co-transport with the cytoplasmic stream, does not. Nuclear MTOCs emanating perpendicular and tangential cMTs lead cMT-dependent movements
Assessment of Appropriateness of an Initial Dosing Regimen of Vancomycin and Development of a New Dosing Nomogram

Vancomycin is a glycopeptide antibiotic used to treat Gram‐positive infections including methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The objectives of this study were to evaluate the appropriateness of the initial dosing regimen of vancomycin, identify factors to be considered in regimen selection and develop a new dosing nomogram. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) data of vancomycin obtained from Seoul National University Hospital from 2011 to 2013 were included in this analysis. The vancomycin trough concentrations at steady‐state were estimated using Abbott's PKS software program and then categorized into three levels: subtherapeutic, therapeutic and toxic. The newly developed nomograms were evaluated by analysing the percentage of patients with target vancomycin trough concentration using the data of 2,570 patients of the first TDM cases. Therapeutic level was achieved only in approximately one‐fifth of the cases, while 56.0% and 23.8% of the TDMs were considered subtherapeutic and toxic, respectively. As body‐weight and creatinine clearance (CrCL) increased, the proportion of patients with a subtherapeutic level increased. Using the newly developed nomogram increased the proportion of patients who achieved therapeutic levels from 23.1% to 45.0% or 13.8% to 36.2% (target, 10–15 and 15–20 mg/L, respectively). These results suggest that the vancomycin concentrations fail to reach the therapeutic level or exceed the safe upper margin of the therapeutic level depending on age, body‐weight and CrCL. Considering these factors, the new nomograms provide a strategy to achieve target concentrations of vancomycin more rapidly than existing regimens.
Care in the Community? Gender and the Reconfiguration of Community Work in a Post-Mining Neighbourhood

This chapter draws upon a qualitative research project which examined the post-1984/85 Strike experiences of a South Wales coalmining population, and looked at how people engage in work for their communities, why this work is undertaken, and how it fits in with their other responsibilities, transgressing private and public, formal and informal boundaries (Parry, 2000). I argue that community work continues to provide a powerful occupation for local populations, and that the disruption of traditional solidarities in the coalfields has at once encompassed gain, loss and stasis. These have given way to a more diverse array of community activities, which reflect the increasingly variable socioeconomic circumstances of people’s lives.
Organizational learning culture and workplace spirituality

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of organizational learning culture as an enabler of knowledge-sharing behaviours and workplace spirituality. A model is proposed to examine the mediating role of knowledge-sharing behaviours between organizational learning culture and workplace spirituality. Design/methodology/approach – Employees from various Thai industries participated in the study, and structural equation modelling was used to test hypothesized relationships. Findings – Results suggest a positive relationship between organizational learning culture and workplace spirituality, partially mediated by knowledge-sharing behaviours. Research limitations/implications – The study was limited to Thailand, and is a cross-sectional design. Further investigation into the causality of relationships and cultural disparities is needed. Practical implications – Friendly learning environments enable both knowledge sharing and change organization members’ views regarding learning and perfor.
Multiple-Insecticide Resistance in Anopheles gambiae Mosquitoes, Southern Côte d’Ivoire

Preventing malaria used to seem as simple as killing the vector, the mosquito; however, a recent study shows that this concept is now anything but simple. The highly effective use of insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor insecticide spraying is being challenged by mosquito resistance to insecticides. In West Africa, populations of this mosquito vector are now resistant to all 4 classes of insecticide approved for this use. And no new classes of insecticide are anticipated until 2020, at the earliest. Development of newer classes of insecticide is crucial because if resistance continues unchecked, the hard-earned progress in malaria control in Africa could be quickly reversed.
Auctions and Bidding

ONE PARTY TO AN EXCHANGE often knows something relevant to the transaction that the other party does not know. Such asymmetries of information are pervasive in economic activity: for example, in the relationship between employer and employee when the employee's effort cannot be monitored perfectly; between the stockholders and the manager of a firm; between insurer and insured; between a regulated firm and the regulatory agency; between the supplier and the consumers of a public good; between a socialist firm and the central planner; or (as is the subject of this paper) between buyer and seller when the value of the item is uncertain. Forty years ago, F. A. Hayek criticized theories that purport to describe the price system but start from the assumption that individuals have symmetric information: The peculiar character of the problem of a rational economic order is determined precisely by the fact that the knowledge of the circumstances of which we must make use never exists in concentrated or integrated form but solely as the dispersed bits of incomplete and frequently contradictory knowledge which all the separate individuals possess. The economic problem of society is thus not merely a problem of how to allocate "given" resources-if "given" is taken to mean given to a single mind which deliberately solves the problem set by these "data. " It is rather a problem of how to secure the best use of resources known to any of the members of society, for ends whose relative importance only these individuals know. Or, to put it briefly, it is a problem of the utilization of knowledge which is not given to anyone in its totality. (Hayek 1945, p. 519)
Temporally stable genetic structure and low migration in an Atlantic salmon population complex: implications for conservation and management

The evolutionary potential of a population is closely related to two key population genetic parameters, namely the effective population size (Ne) and migration rate (m). Furthermore, knowledge of these parameters is required in order to assess potential constraints on local adaptation and for the development of biologically sound management strategies. We addressed these key issues by investigating the temporal and spatial genetic structure of over 2000 adult Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) collected from 17 sites in the Teno and Näätämö rivers in northernmost Europe with up to five time points spanning temporal intervals up to 24 years (∼4 generations). In all cases except one, local populations were found to be temporally stable within the river system. Estimates of Ne were generally a magnitude larger for the mainstem and headwater populations (MS+HW, Ne∼340–1200) than for the tributary populations (Ne∼35–160), thus explaining the higher genetic diversity and lower divergence of the MS+HW populations compared to tributaries. The overall migration rates to tributaries were low, and in some cases, low enough for local adaptations to potentially evolve, despite their lower Ne. Signs of a population bottleneck and natural recruitment from nearby populations were detected in one local population. This highlights a fact which is relevant for the conservation and management of highly substructured population systems in general: that even when the overall census size is large, local populations can be vulnerable to perturbations. To preserve the current and to regain the historical distribution of salmon within the river system, we propose that the status of the total population complex should be evaluated at the local population level rather than from descriptive statistics at the system level.
Iranian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences the Spatial Learning and Memory Performance in Methamphetamine–sensitized and Withdrawn Rats

Original article Objective(s): There is controversial evidence about the effect of methamphetamine (METH) on spatial memory. We tested the time-dependent effects of METH on spatial short-term (working) and long-term (reference) memory in METH –sensitized and withdrawn rats in the Morris water maze. Materials and Methods: Rats were sensitized to METH (2 mg/kg, daily/5 days, SC). Rats were trained in water maze (4 trials/day/ for 5 days). Probe test was performed 24 hr after training. Two days after probe test, working memory training (2 trials/day/ for 5 days) was conducted. Acquisition–retention interval was 75 min. The treatment was continued per day 30 and 120 min before the test. Two groups of METH –sensitized rats were trained in reference memory after a longer period of withdrawal (30 days). Results: Sensitized rats exhibited significantly longer escape latencies on the training, spent significantly less time in the target zone (all, P<0.05), and their working memory impaired 30 min after injection. While, METH has no effect on the spatial learning process 120 min after injection, and rats spent significantly less time in the target zone (P<0.05), as well it has no effect on working memory. Also, impairment of reference memory persisted after prolonged abstinence. Conclusion: Our findings indicated that METH impaired spatial learning and memory 30 min after injection, but spared spatial learning, either acquisition or retention of spatial working, but partially impaired retention of spatial reference memory following 120 min after injection in sensitized rats, which persisted even after prolonged abstinence. Keywords: Long-term memory METH-sensitized rats Short-term memory Spatial memory ►Please cite this paper as: A. The spatial learning and memory performance in methamphetamine–sensitized and withdrawn rats.
Epigenetic drugs: More than meets the eye

The Epigenome constitutes the ortography and grammar of the cell abecedary, the Genome. From DNA methylation to histone modifications, from chromatin remodelling to noncoding RNAs, all these chemical marks and molecules facilitate the correct reading of our genetic material. The epigenetic setting sits between the genotype and the phenotype to originate cellular homeostasis. In addition, the plastic and dynamic nature of the epigenetic marks permits the adaptation of tissues, organs, and individuals to changes in the environment. The described belts of DNA, RNA, and protein regulation become almost unrecognizable in many human diseases, with cancer cells being the most studied pathology. There is margin for hope and, due to the reversible nature of the described chemical modifcations, targeting of the proteins that write, erase, and read the epigenetic language have extremely great potential as therapeutic tools. The use of the so-called epigenetic drugs have changed the morbidity of diseases with unmet medical needs, such as myelodisplastic syndrome or cutaneous limphoma. But beyond DNA demethylating agents and inhibitors of histone deacetylases, we have today an expanding portfolio of compounds that target the epigenetic machinery, including histone methyltransferase, histone demethylase, histone kinase, and bromodomain inhibitors. Some of these are central in ongoing clinical trials and high expectations are placed on them, particularly in the context of hematological malignancies and soft tissue tumors. However, other human disorders can follow this lead, and neurodegenerative and cardiovascular disease could eventually benefit from the results obtained in the oncology field. More importantly, additional effects beyond those classically ascribed to these drugs are now beginning to be reported, some of them related to shifts in the immune recognition systems and the response to agents in the renewed area of immunotherapy. I am sure that we will witness many unexpected advances in now forgotten areas in the same way. Herein, we have devoted a Special Focus Issue of Epigenetics to Epigenetic Drugs, touching the intimate mechanisms of their effects, the irruption of bromodomain inhibitors, the next generation of lysine demethylase inhibitors, the applications in pediatric brain tumors and follicular lymphoma, and their potential uses beyond oncology. I hope that all of you enjoy reading these insightful review articles.
Datacenter Changes vs. Employment Rates for Datacenter Managers In the Cloud Computing Era

Due to the evolving Cloud Computing paradigm, there is a prevailing concern that in the near future data center managers may be in short supply. Cloud computing, as a whole, is becoming more prevalent into today s computing world. In fact, cloud computing has become so popular that some are now referring to data centers as cloud centers. How does this interest in cloud computing translate into employment rates for data center managers? The popularity of the public and private cloud models are the prevailing force behind answering this question. Therefore, the skill set of the datacenter manager has evolved to harness the on demand self-services, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, measured service, and multi tenacity characteristics of cloud computing. Using diverse sources ranging from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics to trade articles, this manuscript takes an in-depth look at these employment rates related to the cloud and the determining factors behind them. Based on the information available, datacenter manager employment rates in the cloud computing era will continue to increase well into 2016.
Residential mobility desires and behaviour over the life course : linking lives through time

Residential mobility theory proposes that moves are often preceded by the expression of moving desires and expectations. Much research has investigated how individuals form these pre-move thoughts, with a largely separate literature examining actual mobility. Although a growing number of studies link pre-move thoughts to subsequent moving behaviour, these often do not explicitly distinguish between different types and combinations of pre-move thoughts. Using 1998-2006 British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) data, this study investigates whether moving desires and expectations are empirically distinct pre-move thoughts. Using multinomial regression models this study demonstrates that moving desires and expectations have different meanings, and are often held in combination: the factors associated with expecting to move differ depending upon whether the move is also desired (and vice versa). Next, using panel logistic regression models, the paper shows that different desire-expectation combinations have different effects on the probability of subsequent moving behaviour. The study identified two important groups generally overlooked in the literature: those who expect undesired moves and those who desire to move without expecting this to happen.
Mutational Analysis of Cysteine-rich Domains of the Epithelium Sodium Channel (ENaC)

One of the characteristic features of the structure of the epithelial sodium channel family (ENaC) is the presence of two highly conserved cysteine-rich domains (CRD1 and CRD2) in the large extracellular loops of the proteins. We have studied the role of CRDs in the functional expression of rat αβγ ENaC subunits by systematically mutating cysteine residues (singly or in combinations) into either serine or alanine. In the Xenopusoocyte expression system, mutations of two cysteines in CRD1 of α, β, or γ ENaC subunits led to a temperature-dependent inactivation of the channel. In CRD1, one of the cysteines of the rat αENaC subunit (Cys158) is homologous to Cys133 of the corresponding human subunit causing, when mutated to tyrosine (C133Y), pseudohypoaldosteronism type 1, a severe salt-loosing syndrome in neonates. In CRD2, mutation of two cysteines in α and β but not in the γ subunit also produced a temperature-dependent inactivation of the channel. The main features of the mutant cysteine channels are: (i) a decrease in cell surface expression of channel molecules that parallels the decrease in channel activity and (ii) a normal assembly or rate of degradation as assessed by nondenaturing co-immunoprecipitation of [35S]methionine-labeled channel protein. These data indicate that the two cysteines in CRD1 and CRD2 are not a prerequisite for subunit assembly and/or intrinsic channel activity. We propose that they play an essential role in the efficient transport of assembled channels to the plasma membrane.