Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genomics and anterior segment dysgenesis: a review

Anterior segment dysgenesis refers to a spectrum of disorders affecting structures in the anterior segment of the eye including the iris, cornea and trabecular meshwork. Approximately 50% of patients with anterior segment dysgenesis develop glaucoma. Traditional genetic methods using linkage analysis and family‐based studies have identified numerous disease‐causing genes such as PAX6, FOXC1 and PITX2. Despite these advances, phenotypic and genotypic heterogeneity pose continuing challenges to understand the mechanisms underlying the complexity of anterior segment dysgenesis disorders. Genomic methods, such as genome‐wide association studies, are potentially an effective tool to understand anterior segment dysgenesis and the individual susceptibility to the development of glaucoma. In this review, we provide the rationale, as well as the challenges, to utilizing genomic methods to examine anterior segment dysgenesis disorders.
Do Gifted Student Writers and Creative Writing Experts Rate Creativity the Same Way?

Little research has been conducted on how gifted novices compare to experts in their judgments of creative writing. If novices and experts assign similar ratings, it could be argued that gifted novices are able to offer their peers feedback of a similar quality to that provided by experts. Such a finding would support the use of collaborative feedback in gifted classrooms. We asked gifted high school creative writers and three groups of experts (cognitive psychologists, creative writers, and teachers) to rate a set of 27 short stories and 28 poems for creativity using a scale of 1 to 6. The interrater agreement among the novices was within acceptable standards, and the agreement among the experts was very strong. When the ratings of novices were compared to the ratings of experts, a strong degree of correlation was found, supporting the use of peer feedback among gifted novice creative writers.
Fast DPP Sampling for Nystrom with Application to Kernel Methods

The Nystrom method has long been popular for scaling up kernel methods. Its theoretical guarantees and empirical performance rely critically on the quality of the landmarks selected. We study landmark selection for Nystrom using Determinantal Point Processes (DPPs), discrete probability models that allow tractable generation of diverse samples. We prove that landmarks selected via DPPs guarantee bounds on approximation errors; subsequently, we analyze implications for kernel ridge regression. Contrary to prior reservations due to cubic complexity of DPP sampling, we show that (under certain conditions) Markov chain DPP sampling requires only linear time in the size of the data. We present several empirical results that support our theoretical analysis, and demonstrate the superior performance of DPP-based landmark selection compared with existing approaches.
Reclamation of saline bare soils by leaching and barley production

A one year field experiment was conducted to investigate the reclamation and leaching effects of saline bare soils on barely production in Qom province, Iran. A randomized block design with five treatments and three replications was used. The treatments were: L0 (conventional irrigation practice), L1 (Two excess irrigation on preplanting), L2 (one excess irrigation on preplanting), L3 (one excess irrigation after planting), L4 (two excess irrigation after planting). Ground water from a well in the Qomroud area, which had an EC of 12 dSm was used to soil leaching and crop irrigation. Early in fall, the Kavir barely cultivar was grown in each plot. Changes of salinity at surface and subsurface soil were measured. At harvest, straw and grain yield of barley were determined. The initial soil ECe in all treatments was similar (67.1 and 54.7 dSm in surface and subsurface layers, respectively). In the all, ECe decreased to value close to that of the irrigation water, at both depths. This suggests that in all treatments amount of irrigation water was relatively sufficient to remove salts, resulting in little salt accumulation within the sampled profile. At all treatments (except L0), the final ECe values of soil surface were below the irrigation water. This was due to leaching by rain in the fall and spring and melting snow that removed salts from the root zone. Visual observation at early growth stages, revealed signs of injury such as delay in germination, chlorosis, necrosis and burning of the leaf margin, in all treatments. In the L0, injuries were severe. Only in the L1, barley yield (2,750 Kg ha) was close to the average yield of non-salinized soils at Qom (3,000 Kg ha). There was the least reduction in relative grain yield (% of grain yield at non-salinized soils), and plants provided the highest grain and straw yield compared to other treatments. This was due to sufficient leaching of salts during the early growth stages. Analysis of variances showed that there was no significant differences in grain and straw yield of L0, L2, L3 and L4 treatments. Here we showed that very high salinity should not reduce barley yield if attention is paid to time and amount of leaching or irrigation water.
Programming social, cognitive, and neuroendocrine development by early exposure to novelty

Mildly stressful early life experiences can potentially impact a broad range of social, cognitive, and physiological functions in humans, nonhuman primates, and rodents. Recent rodent studies favor a maternal-mediation hypothesis that considers maternal-care differences induced by neonatal stimulation as the cause of individual differences in offspring development. Using neonatal novelty exposure, a neonatal stimulation paradigm that dissociates maternal individual differences from a direct stimulation effect on the offspring, we investigated the effect of early exposures to novelty on a diverse range of psychological functions using several assessment paradigms. Pups that received brief neonatal novelty exposures away from the home environment showed enhancement in spatial working memory, social competition, and corticosterone response to surprise during adulthood compared with their home-staying siblings. These functional enhancements in novelty-exposed rats occurred despite evidence that maternal care was directed preferentially toward home-staying instead of novelty-exposed pups, indicating that greater maternal care is neither necessary nor sufficient for these early stimulation-induced functional enhancements. We suggest a unifying maternal-modulation hypothesis, which distinguishes itself from the maternal-mediation hypothesis in that (i) neonatal stimulation can have direct effects on pups, cumulatively leading to long-term improvement in adult offspring; and (ii) maternal behavior can attenuate or potentiate these effects, thereby decreasing or increasing this long-term functional improvement.
Does Visual-Perceptual Training Augment the Fielding Performance of Skilled Cricketers?

This study examined the effectiveness of visual-perceptual training for improving fielding performance in cricket. Twelve highly-skilled cricket players completed a video-based decision-making test and an in-situ fielding test before and after a six-week training intervention. During this period, all participants completed the same on-field training program, but seven players completed three additional perceptual training sessions per week (TRAIN). The remaining five players acted as a control (CON). Despite no group differences at pre-test, TRAIN scored significantly higher than CON at post-test for decision accuracy within the video-based test. For the in-situ fielding test, TRAIN demonstrated greater improvements in fielding success following the intervention compared to CON. The results indicate that six weeks of on-field training combined with visual-perceptual training can lead to improvements in the fielding performance of skilled cricketers above those of on-field training alone. Findings are discussed from empirical and applied coaching perspectives.
Lignocellulose Degradation by Soil Micro‐organisms Isolation and Identification of Microorganisms from Soil Able To

AKADEMISK AVHANDLING Som med tillstånd av Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan i Stockholm framlägges till offentlig granskning för avläggande av teknologie doktorsexamen fredagen den 18 mars 2016, kl. 10. To my whole beloved family and especially to my dear daughter. " Follow your dreams and never give up. " Jane Goodall ABSTRACT Lignocellulosic biomass is a sustainable resource with abundant reserves. Compared to petroleum‐based products, the biomass‐derived polymers and chemicals give better environmental profiles. A lot of research interest is focused on understanding the lignocellulose structures. Lignin, among the three major wood components, represents most difficulty for microbial degradation because of its complex structure and because cross‐linking to hemicellulose makes wood such a compact structure. Nevertheless, wood is naturally degraded by wood‐degrading micro‐organisms and modified and partly degraded residual of lignin goes into soil. Therefore soil serves as a good environment in which to search for special lignin‐degraders. In this thesis, different types of lignin have been used as sole carbon sources to screen for lignin‐degrading soil micro‐ organisms. Eleven aerobic and three anaerobic microbe strains have been isolated and identified as able to grow on lignin. The lignin degradation patterns of selected strains have been studied and these partly include an endwise cleavage of β‐O‐4 bonds in lignin and is more complex than simple hydrolytic degradation. As lignin exists in wood covalently bonded to hemicellulose, one isolated microbe strain, Phoma herbarum, has also been studied with regards to its ability to degrade covalent lignin polysaccharide networks (LCC). The results show that its culture filtrate can attack lignin‐ polysaccharide networks in a manner different from that of the commercial enzyme product, Gammanase, possibly by selective cleavage of phenyl glucoside bonds. The effects on LCC of Phoma herbarum also enhance polymer extractability. Hot‐water extraction of a culture filtrate of Phoma herbarum‐treated fiberized spruce wood material gave an amount of extracted galactoglucomannan more than that given by the Gammanase‐treated material and non‐enzyme‐treated material. Over millions of years of natural evolution, micro‐organisms on the one hand develop so that they can degrade all wood components to get energy for growth, while plants on the other hand also continuously develop to defend from microbial attack. Compared with lignin and cellulose, hemicelluloses as major components of plant cell walls, are much more easily degraded, but hemicelluloses differ from cellulose in that they are acetylated to different extents. The biological functions of acetylation are not completely understood, but …
Macular translocation with 360 degrees retinotomy for exudative age-related macular degeneration.

BACKGROUND Macular rotation surgery comprises surgical extraction of choroidal neovascular membranes in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and translocation of the foveal neural retina over adjacent retinal pigment epithelium. OBJECTIVE To determine whether macular translocation with 360 degrees retinotomy can stabilize and/or improve visual acuity in patients with subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (CNV) secondary to AMD. DESIGN This study consisted of a standardized surgical procedure on a series of 90 consecutive patients and follow-up examinations at fixed intervals for 12 months. PARTICIPANTS All patients in this study had experienced recent visual loss resulting from subfoveal CNV caused by AMD. Twenty-six patients had major macular subretinal hemorrhage, 39 patients had occult subfoveal CNV, and 25 patients had classic subfoveal CNV. METHODS Macular translocation surgery was performed between 1997 and 1999. The patients were examined preoperatively and at 3, 6, and 12 months postoperatively, including visual acuity, microperimetry, angiography, and orthoptic assessment. RESULTS Visual acuity increased by 15 or more letters in 24 patients, remained stable in 37 patients, and deteriorated by 15 or more letters in 29 patients at 12 months postoperatively. A secondary procedure was necessary in 17 patients because of severe complications; proliferative vitreoretinopathy was observed in 17 eyes, macular pucker in 5 eyes, and macular hole in 1 patient. CONCLUSION Macular translocation is a technically demanding surgical procedure. Although the procedure has a high rate of surgical and postoperative complications, the functional and anatomical results appear to be promising for selected patients with subfoveal CNV secondary to AMD.
Aluminum toxicity elicits a dysfunctional TCA cycle and succinate accumulation in hepatocytes

Aluminum (Al), a known environmental toxicant, has been linked to a variety of pathological conditions such as dialysis dementia, osteomalacia, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease. However, its precise role in the pathogenesis of these disorders is not fully understood. Using hepatocytes as a model system, we have probed the impact of this trivalent metal on the aerobic energy‐generating machinery. Here we show that Al‐exposed hepatocytes were characterized by lipid and protein oxidation and a dysfunctional tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle. BN‐PAGE, SDS‐PAGE, and Western blot analyses revealed a marked decrease in activity and expression of succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), α‐ketoglutarate dehydrogenase (KGDH), isocitrate dehydrogenase‐NAD+ (IDH), fumarase (FUM), aconitase (ACN), and cytochrome c oxidase (Cyt C Ox). 13C‐NMR and HPLC studies further confirmed the disparate metabolism operative in control and Al‐stressed cells and provided evidence for the accumulation of succinate in the latter cultures. In conclusion, these results suggest that Al toxicity promotes a dysfunctional TCA cycle and impedes ATP production, events that may contribute to various Al‐induced abnormalities. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biochem Mol Toxicol 20:198–208, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/jbt.20137
Data-driven Noise Model for Simulating Swarms of Flying Insects

We present a model to generate noise-induced insect movements in a large swarm that are similar to those observed in real-world trajectories. Our approach is based on pre-recorded insect trajectories. After presenting a novel evaluation metric and a statistical validation approach that takes into account various characteristics insect motions, we evaluate well-known noise functions. Finally, we combine Curl noise function with a dynamics model to generate realistic swarm simulations and emergent behaviors of flying insects. We demonstrate their performance on simulating large swarms.
The effects of closed head injury upon human memory: An experimental analysis

Patients with minor closed head injuries have been found to demonstrate a specific deficit in the recall of concrete material, which indicates an impairment in the use of mental imagery as a mnemonic code. The present study found a similar pattern of results when patients with either minor or severe closed head injuries were compared with other accident victims. Both the headinjured subjects and their matched controls demonstrated an additional impairment in immediate free recall, which was attributed to a reduced working-memory capacity. Any serious accident appears to impair human cognitive function in a generalised manner by acting as a source of situational stress. This has important implications for the choice of an appropriate control group in research into closed head injury. When compared with orthopaedic patients tested at similar intervals after their accidents, head-injured patients show a disturbance of memory function which is entirely attributable to a reduced capacity to employ mental imagery as an elaborative mnemonic code.
Development and Evaluation of an Experimental Model for the Study of the Cerebral Circulation in the Unanesthetized Goat

An animal model has been developed for the continuous measurement of total cerebral blood flow in the unanesthetized, unrestrained goat. We selected the goat because each internal maxillary artery, a branch of the external carotid artery, provides the total blood flow to each hemisphere via the rete mirabile. After the occlusion of the extracerebral vessels of the internal maxillary artery with thrombin, an electromagnetic flow transducer was chronically implanted on this artery, distal to the temporal artery, to measure hemispheric blood flow. Reproducible measurements of cerebral blood flow were obtained in ten unanesthetized goats for periods ranging between two weeks and five months. The mean cerebral blood flow for the ten goats was 133 ± 5 ml/min/100 gm tissue at an average mean aortic pressure of 91 ± 3 mm Hg, heart rate of 79 ± 3 beats/min, arterial PCO2 of 31.4 ± 1.0 mm Hg, P02 of 76.6 ± 1.7 mm Hg, and pH of 7.48 ± 0.02. The present experimental preparation allows cerebrovascular hemodynamics to be evaluated under near-normal conditions and is suitable for physiological and pharmacological studies in normal and abnormal states.
Mining literature for protein-protein interactions

MOTIVATION A central problem in bioinformatics is how to capture information from the vast current scientific literature in a form suitable for analysis by computer. We address the special case of information on protein-protein interactions, and show that the frequencies of words in Medline abstracts can be used to determine whether or not a given paper discusses protein-protein interactions. For those papers determined to discuss this topic, the relevant information can be captured for the Database of Interacting PROTEINS: Furthermore, suitable gene annotations can also be captured. RESULTS Our Bayesian approach scores Medline abstracts for probability of discussing the topic of interest according to the frequencies of discriminating words found in the abstract. More than 80 discriminating words (e.g. complex, interaction, two-hybrid) were determined from a training set of 260 Medline abstracts corresponding to previously validated entries in the Database of Interacting Proteins. Using these words and a log likelihood scoring function, approximately 2000 Medline abstracts were identified as describing interactions between yeast proteins. This approach now forms the basis for the rapid expansion of the Database of Interacting Proteins.
Fostering Intrinsic Motivation through Avatar Identification in Digital Games

Fostering intrinsic motivation with interactive applications can increase the enjoyment that people experience when using technology, but can also translate into more invested effort. We propose that identifying with an avatar in a game will increase the intrinsic motivation of the player. We analyzed data from 126 participants playing a custom endless runner game and show that similarity identification, embodied identification, and wishful identification increases autonomy, immersion, invested effort, enjoyment, and positive affect. We also show that greater identification translates into motivated behaviour as operationalized by the time that players spent in an unending version of the infinite runner. Important for the design of games for entertainment and serious purposes, we discuss how identification with an avatar can be facilitated to cultivate intrinsic motivation within and beyond games.
The importance of gel properties for mucoadhesion measurements: a multivariate data analysis approach

In this study we used tensile strength measurements and a recently developed interpretation procedure to evaluate the mucoadhesive properties of a large set of gel preparations with diverse rheological properties. Multivariate data analysis in the form of principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least square projection to latent structures (PLS) was applied to extract useful information from the rather large quantities of data obtained. PCA showed that the selected series of gels was heterogeneous. Some groupings could be detected but none of the gels was identified as an outlier. By using PLS we investigated the relations between the rheological properties of a gel and the parameters defining the cohesiveness, as measured with the texture analyser used for the mucoadhesion measurements. The rheological properties proved to be important for the results of both the mucoadhesion and the cohesiveness measurements. Furthermore, by using PLS two different measurement configurations were evaluated and it was concluded that the combination of a relatively small volume of gel and two pieces of mucosa seems to be more appropriate than a large volume of gel in combination with one piece of mucosa.
Determinants of Dwell Time in Visual Search: Similarity or Perceptual Difficulty?

The present study examined the factors that determine the dwell times in a visual search task, that is, the duration the gaze remains fixated on an object. It has been suggested that an item’s similarity to the search target should be an important determiner of dwell times, because dwell times are taken to reflect the time needed to reject the item as a distractor, and such discriminations are supposed to be harder the more similar an item is to the search target. In line with this similarity view, a previous study shows that, in search for a target ring of thin line-width, dwell times on thin linewidth Landolt C’s distractors were longer than dwell times on Landolt C’s with thick or medium linewidth. However, dwell times may have been longer on thin Landolt C’s because the thin line-width made it harder to detect whether the stimuli had a gap or not. Thus, it is an open question whether dwell times on thin line-width distractors were longer because they were similar to the target or because the perceptual decision was more difficult. The present study de-coupled similarity from perceptual difficulty, by measuring dwell times on thin, medium and thick line-width distractors when the target had thin, medium or thick line-width. The results showed that dwell times were longer on target-similar than target-dissimilar stimuli across all target conditions and regardless of the line-width. It is concluded that prior findings of longer dwell times on thin linewidth-distractors can clearly be attributed to target similarity. As will be discussed towards the end, the finding of similarity effects on dwell times has important implications for current theories of visual search and eye movement control.
El envejecimiento afecta a las pruebas de compleción de raíces y reconocimiento pero no a la generación de categorías

Aging affects word-stem completion and recognition but not category generation. In this study, we investigated the effect of aging on two implicit memory tasks, word-stem completion and category generation, and on explicit recognition. We compared the performance of young and older adults on these implicit memory tasks with those of explicit recognition. We expected better performance of young than older adults in the explicit memory task and similar priming in both implicit memory tasks. The results showed that young adults performed better than older adults in the recognition task. Moreover, both age groups showed priming in the implicit memory tasks, although priming was greater in young adults compared to older adults in the word-stem completion memory task, whereas both age groups showed similar levels of priming in the category generation task. The present results showed dissociations as a function of age not only between the explicit and the implicit tasks but also between the implicit tasks.