Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PERSPECTIVE: GENETIC ASSIMILATION AND A POSSIBLE EVOLUTIONARY PARADOX: CAN MACROEVOLUTION SOMETIMES BE SO FAST AS TO PASS US BY?

Abstract The idea of genetic assimilation, that environmentally induced phenotypes may become genetically fixed and no longer require the original environmental stimulus, has had varied success through time in evolutionary biology research. Proposed by Waddington in the 1940s, it became an area of active empirical research mostly thanks to the efforts of its inventor and his collaborators. It was then attacked as of minor importance during the “hardening” of the neo-Darwinian synthesis and was relegated to a secondary role for decades. Recently, several papers have appeared, mostly independently of each other, to explore the likelihood of genetic assimilation as a biological phenomenon and its potential importance to our understanding of evolution. In this article we briefly trace the history of the concept and then discuss theoretical models that have newly employed genetic assimilation in a variety of contexts. We propose a typical scenario of evolution of genetic assimilation via an intermediate stage of phenotypic plasticity and present potential examples of the same. We also discuss a conceptual map of current and future lines of research aimed at exploring the actual relevance of genetic assimilation for evolutionary biology.
Mild stress stimuli built into a non-immersive virtual environment can elicit actual stress responses

ABSTRACT The experience of Virtual Reality (VR) can lead to unwanted or wanted psychological stress reactions. Highly immersive VR games for instance utilise extreme, life-threatening, or dangerous situations to achieve those responses from their players. There is also sufficient evidence that in clinical settings and specific situations, such as fear of heights or post-traumatic stress, virtual stimuli can lead to perceived stress for clients. However, there is a gap in research targeting everyday, mild emotional stimuli, which are neither extreme nor specific and which are not presented in an immersive system. To what extent can common stimuli in a non-immersive virtual environment elicit actual stress reactions for its users? We developed a desktop VR system and evaluated it in a study with 54 participants. We could show that virtual stimuli in a common, domestic family environment led to a significant increase in perceived stress as measured by quantitative (self-reports) and qualitative (semi-structured interviews analysed with a General Inductive Approach (GIA)) responses. The results also showed that the introduction of virtual stimuli induced significantly higher levels of perceived workload and sense of presence and led to different physiological reactions. These findings have implications for the design and implementation of non-immersive VR systems.
An Innovative GA Optimized Investment Strategy based on a New Technical Indicator using Multiple MAS

This paper proposes a new medium/long term investment strategy for stock markets based on a combination of Simple Moving Averages Crossover (SMAC) and Moving Average Derivate (MAD). This strategy is compared with the Buy and Hold, with the Moving Averages Crossover, and with the Moving Average Derivate strategy. The experiments show that the combination of SMAC and MAD outperforms the results of each strategy individually. The presented approach has an average return of investment of 9.0%, compared with the 2.6% return of the Buy and Hold, for the S&P500, FTSE100, DAX30 and NIKKEI225, between 2004 and 2009. General Terms Algorithms, Economics, Experimentation, Performance.
Pushing the Limits of Reasoning over Ontologies with Hidden Content

There is currently a growing interest in techniques for hiding parts of the signature of an ontology Kh that is being reused by another ontology Kv. Towards this goal, Cuenca Grau, Motik, and Kazakov (2009) recently proposed the import-by-query framework, which makes the content of Kh accessible through a limited query interface. If Kv reuses the symbols from Kh in a certain restricted way, one can reason over Kv ∪ Kh by accessing only Kv and the query interface. In this paper, we map out the landscape of the import-by-query problem. We show that certain restrictions of our original framework are strictly necessary to make reasoning possible, we propose extensions that overcome some of the expressivity limitations, we present several novel reasoning algorithms, and we outline the limitations of the new framework.
Electrical characterization of wafer-scale epitaxial graphene and its RF applications

High-performance graphene field-effect transistors are fabricated on two-inch graphene-on-SiC wafers. Epitaxial graphene was synthesized on SiC wafers by thermal annealing to form one to two layers of graphene. The graphene transistors possess high current density of > 1mA/µm, and a cutoff frequency of 170 GHz is achieved for graphene FETs with a gate length of 90 nm. These results unravel the great potential of graphene for future RF applications.
Intrinsic Hippocampal Excitability Changes of Opposite Signs and Different Origins in CA1 and CA3 Pyramidal Neurons Underlie Aging-Related Cognitive Deficits

Aging-related cognitive deficits have been attributed to dysfunction of neurons due to failures at synaptic or intrinsic loci, or both. Given the importance of the hippocampus for successful encoding of memory and that the main output of the hippocampus is via the CA1 pyramidal neurons, much of the research has been focused on identifying the aging-related changes of these CA1 pyramidal neurons. We and others have discovered that the postburst afterhyperpolarization (AHP) following a train of action potentials is greatly enlarged in CA1 pyramidal neurons of aged animals. This enlarged postburst AHP is a significant factor in reducing the intrinsic excitability of these neurons, and thus limiting their activity in the neural network during learning. Based on these data, it has largely been thought that aging-related cognitive deficits are attributable to reduced activity of pyramidal neurons. However, recent in vivo and ex vivo studies provide compelling evidence that aging-related deficits could also be due to a converse change in CA3 pyramidal neurons, which show increased activity with aging. In this review, we will incorporate these recent findings and posit that an interdependent dynamic dysfunctional change occurs within the hippocampal network, largely due to altered intrinsic excitability in CA1 and CA3 hippocampal pyramidal neurons, which ultimately leads to the aging-related cognitive deficits.
Descending-Path Convolution Kernel for Syntactic Structures

Convolution tree kernels are an efficient and effective method for comparing syntactic structures in NLP methods. However, current kernel methods such as subset tree kernel and partial tree kernel understate the similarity of very similar tree structures. Although soft-matching approaches can improve the similarity scores, they are corpusdependent and match relaxations may be task-specific. We propose an alternative approach called descending path kernel which gives intuitive similarity scores on comparable structures. This method is evaluated on two temporal relation extraction tasks and demonstrates its advantage over rich syntactic representations.
Is displacement possible without language? Evidence from preverbal infants and chimpanzees

Is displacement possible without language? This question was addressed in a recent work by Liszkowski and colleagues (Liszkowski, Schafer, Carpenter, & Tomasello, 2009). The authors carried out an experiment to demonstrate that 12-month-old prelinguistic infants can communicate about absent entities by using pointing gestures, while chimpanzees cannot. The main hypothesis of their study is that displacement does not depend on language but is, however, exclusively human and instead depends on species-specific social-cognitive human skills. Against this hypothesis, we will argue that a symbolic representation is needed to intentionally communicate absence and that this symbolic representation is tied to language. Moreover, data on the expression of displacement in home-sign systems will be taken into consideration. In light of this data, and in opposition to Liszkowski et al.'s (2009) claim, this paper will argue that displacement gestures are not foundational to language. Instead, they predate and predict the expression of complex forms of negation because they are specifically foundational to them.
Hierarchical Menu Design: Breadth, Depth, and Task Complexity

In this research a relationship between an hierarchical menu's depth and the perceived complexity of a task involving menu retrieval was proposed and validated. 12 subjects were asked to use six different hierarchical menus of varying breadth and depth. The dependent variables were response time and accuracy. The independent variables were depth and breadth of the hierarchy. Subsequent to experimentation, the subjects were asked to complete a questionnaire on users' perceptions of the complexity of the different menu structures. As depth increased, perceived complexity of the menus increased significantly. These phenomena are linked to an existing theory of task complexity. We suggest that the cognitive component influencing users' perceptions of task complexity was short-term memory load.
CD28 and CTLA‐4 coreceptor expression and signal transduction

Summary: T‐cell activation is mediated by antigen‐specific signals from the TCRζ/CD3 and CD4–CD8–p56lck complexes in combination with additional co‐signals provided by coreceptors such as CD28, inducible costimulator (ICOS), cytotoxic T‐lymphocyte antigen‐4 (CTLA‐4), programmed death (PD‐1), and others. CD28 and ICOS provide positive signals that promote and sustain T‐cell responses, while CTLA‐4 and PD‐1 limit responses. The balance between stimulatory and inhibitory co‐signals determines the ultimate nature of T‐cell responses where response to foreign pathogen is achieved without excess inflammation and autoimmunity. In this review, we outline the current knowledge of the CD28 and CTLA‐4 signaling mechanisms [involving phosphatidylinositol 3 kinase (PI3K), growth factor receptor‐bound protein 2 (Grb2), Filamin A, protein kinase C θ (PKCθ), and phosphatases] that control T‐cell immunity. We also present recent findings on T‐cell receptor‐interacting molecule (TRIM) regulation of CTLA‐4 surface expression, and a signaling pathway involving CTLA‐4 activation of PI3K and protein kinase B (PKB)/AKT by which cell survival is ensured under conditions of anergy induction.
Civil-Military Relations in Democratizing Indonesia: Change amidst Continuity

The long-standing debate about civil-military relations remains unresolved, especially in light of the third wave of democratization. This study highlights the Indonesian case and its democratization experiment and argues that in spite of changes in civil-military relations during the "third wave," there are certain imperatives that have remained constant. Using Rebecca Schiff's concordance approach, and taking into consideration Indonesia's historical and cultural realities, the article analyzes both the transformation of civilmilitary relations in Indonesia and its limitations. The Indonesian military remains a critical political player in Indonesian politics despite democratization, with a "back to barracks" posture that is unlikely to change in the near future, especially at a time when the country is faced with numerous security challenges and instabilities.
Ultraviolet and Optical Observations of OB Associations and Field Stars in the Southwest Region of the Large Magellanic Cloud

Using ultraviolet photometry from the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) combined with photometry and spectroscopy from three ground-based optical data sets we have analyzed the stellar content of OB associations and field areas in and around the regions N79, N81, N83, and N94 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. In particular, we compare data for the OB association Lucke-Hodge 2 (LH 2) to determine how strongly the initial mass function (IMF) may depend on different photometric reductions and calibrations. Although the data sets exhibit median photometric differences of up to 30%, the resulting uncorrected IMFs are reasonably similar, typically Γ ∼ -1.6 in the 5–60 M⊙ mass range. However, when we correct for the background contribution of field stars, the calculated IMF flattens to Γ = -1.3 ± 0.2 (similar to the Salpeter IMF slope). This change underlines the importance of correcting for field star contamination in determinations of the IMF of star formation regions. It is possible that even in the case of an universal IMF, the variability of the density of background stars could be the dominant factor creating the differences between calculated IMFs for OB associations. We have also combined the UIT data with the most extensive of these ground-based optical data sets—the Magellanic Cloud Photometric Survey—to study the distribution of the candidate O-type stars in the field. We find a significant fraction, roughly half, of the candidate O-type stars are found in field regions, far from any obvious OB associations (in accord with the 1982 suggestions of Garmany, Conti, & Chiosi for O-type stars in the solar neighborhood). These stars are greater than 2′ (30 pc) from the boundaries of existing OB associations in the region, which is a distance greater than most O-type stars with typical dispersion velocities will travel in their lifetimes. The origin of these massive field stars (either as runaways, members of low-density star-forming regions, or examples of isolated massive star formation) will have to be determined by further observations and analysis.
Clinical and functional impact of TARBP2 over-expression in adrenocortical carcinoma

Deregulation of microRNA (miRNA) expression in adrenocortical carcinomas (ACCs) has been documented to have diagnostic, prognostic, as well as functional implications. Here, we evaluated the mRNA expression of DROSHA, DGCR8, DICER (DICER1), TARBP2, and PRKRA, the core components in the miRNA biogenesis pathway, in a cohort of 73 adrenocortical tumors (including 43 adenomas and 30 carcinomas) and nine normal adrenal cortices using a RT-qPCR approach. Our results show a significant over-expression of TARBP2, DICER, and DROSHA in the carcinomas compared with adenomas or adrenal cortices (P<0.001 for all comparisons). Using western blot and immunohistochemistry analyses, we confirmed the higher expression of TARBP2, DICER, and DROSHA at the protein level in carcinoma cases. Furthermore, we demonstrate that mRNA expression of TARBP2, but not DICER or DROSHA, is a strong molecular predictor to discriminate between adenomas and carcinomas. Functionally, we showed that inhibition of TARBP2 expression in human NCI-H295R ACC cells resulted in a decreased cell proliferation and induction of apoptosis. TARBP2 over-expression was not related to gene mutations; however, copy number gain of the TARBP2 gene was observed in 57% of the carcinomas analyzed. In addition, we identified that miR-195 and miR-497 could directly regulate TARBP2 and DICER expression in ACC cells. This is the first study to demonstrate the deregulation of miRNA-processing factors in adrenocortical tumors and to show the clinical and biological impact of TARBP2 over-expression in this tumor type.
Quorum-Sensing Escherichia coli Regulator A: a Regulator of the LysR Family Involved in the Regulation of the Locus of Enterocyte Effacement Pathogenicity Island in Enterohemorrhagic E. coli

ABSTRACT The locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE) is a chromosomal pathogenicity island that encodes the proteins involved in the formation of the attaching and effacing lesions by enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) and enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC). The LEE comprises 41 open reading frames organized in five major operons, LEE1, LEE2, LEE3, tir (LEE5), and LEE4, which encode a type III secretion system, the intimin adhesin, the translocated intimin receptor (Tir), and other effector proteins. The first gene of LEE1 encodes the Ler regulator, which activates all the other genes within the LEE. We previously reported that the LEE genes were activated by quorum sensing through Ler (V. Sperandio, J. L. Mellies, W. Nguyen, S. Shin, and J. B. Kaper, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96:15196-15201, 1999). In this study we report that a putative regulator in the E. coli genome is itself activated by quorum sensing. This regulator is encoded by open reading frame b3243; belongs to the LysR family of regulators; is present in EHEC, EPEC, and E. coli K-12; and shares homology with the AphB and PtxR regulators of Vibrio cholerae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, respectively. We confirmed the activation of b3243 by quorum sensing by using transcriptional fusions and renamed this regulator quorum-sensing E. coli regulator A (QseA). We observed that QseA activated transcription of ler and therefore of the other LEE genes. An EHEC qseA mutant had a striking reduction of type III secretion activity, which was complemented when qseA was provided in trans. Similar results were also observed with a qseA mutant of EPEC. The QseA regulator is part of the regulatory cascade that regulates EHEC and EPEC virulence genes by quorum sensing.
Language transfer in language learning

1. List of Contributors 2. Preface 3. Introduction (by Gass, Susan M.) 4. A Role for the Mother Tongue (by Corder, S. Pit) 5. A New Account of Language Transfer (by Schachter, Jacquelyn) 6. Verification of Language Transfer (by Ard, Josh) 7. Nonobvious Transfer: On Predicting Epenthesis Errors (by Broselow, Ellen) 8. Language Transfer and the Acquisition of Pronominal Anaphora (by Gundel, Jeanette K.) 9. Transfer and Variability of Rhetorical Redundancy in Apachean English Interlanguage (by Bartelt, H. Guillermo) 10. Discourse Accent in Second Language Performance (by Scarcella, Robin C.) 11. Discourse Functions in Interlanguage Morphology (by Jordens, Peter) 12. Prior Linguistic Knowledge and the Conversation of the Learning Procedure: Grammaticality judgments of Unilingual and Multilingual Learners (by Zobl, Helmut) 13. Language Transfer And Fossilization: The "Multiple Effects Principle" (by Selinker, Larry) 14. Universal Grammar: Is it Just a New Name for Old Problems? 15. Afterword
Language and Memory Improvements following tDCS of Left Lateral Prefrontal Cortex

Recent research demonstrates that performance on executive-control measures can be enhanced through brain stimulation of lateral prefrontal regions. Separate psycholinguistic work emphasizes the importance of left lateral prefrontal cortex executive-control resources during sentence processing, especially when readers must override early, incorrect interpretations when faced with temporary ambiguity. Using transcranial direct current stimulation, we tested whether stimulation of left lateral prefrontal cortex had discriminate effects on language and memory conditions that rely on executive-control (versus cases with minimal executive-control demands, even in the face of task difficulty). Participants were randomly assigned to receive Anodal, Cathodal, or Sham stimulation of left lateral prefrontal cortex while they (1) processed ambiguous and unambiguous sentences in a word-by-word self-paced reading task and (2) performed an n-back memory task that, on some trials, contained interference lure items reputed to require executive-control. Across both tasks, we parametrically manipulated executive-control demands and task difficulty. Our results revealed that the Anodal group outperformed the remaining groups on (1) the sentence processing conditions requiring executive-control, and (2) only the most complex n-back conditions, regardless of executive-control demands. Together, these findings add to the mounting evidence for the selective causal role of left lateral prefrontal cortex for executive-control tasks in the language domain. Moreover, we provide the first evidence suggesting that brain stimulation is a promising method to mitigate processing demands encountered during online sentence processing.
Means Testing Retirement Benefits: Fostering Equity or Discouraging Savings?

Means testing plays an important role in the UK state pension system. We use a dynamic programming model to consider the long-term behavioural effects of a recent policy reform that reduced the marginal tax rates on private income of means tested retirement benefits from 100% to 40%. Our analysis suggests that the policy reform will encourage the poorest third of all households (based on wealth at age 65) to both save more and delay retirement, and have the opposite effects on richer households. In aggregate, the off-setting behavioural responses that we identify imply an overall delay in the timing of retirement, a fall in average savings, and a small effect on the government budget. We find that, on balance, the policy reform provides a reasonable compromise between the distortions associated with high marginal tax rates, and the costs implied by universal benefits provision.
Absorbing micro-burst traffic by enhancing dynamic threshold policy of data center switches

In data center networks, micro-burst is a common traffic pattern and the packet dropping caused by it usually leads to serious performance degradation. Meanwhile, most of the current commodity switches employ on-chip shared memory, and the buffer management policies of them ensure fair sharing of memory among all ports. Among various polices, Dynamic Threshold (DT) is widely used by switch vendors. However, because DT needs to reserve a fraction of switch buffer, there is free buffer space while packets from micro-burst traffic are dropped. In this paper, we theoretically deduce the sufficient conditions for packet dropping caused by micro-burst traffic, and estimate the corresponding free buffer size. The results show that the free buffer size is very large when the number of overloaded ports is small. What's worse, to ensure fair sharing of memory among output ports, packets from micro-burst traffic may be dropped even when the traffic size is much smaller than the buffer size. In light of these results, we propose Enhanced Dynamic Threshold (EDT) policy, which can alleviate packet dropping caused by micro-burst traffic through fully utilizing the switch buffer and temporarily relaxing the fairness constraint. The simulation results show that EDT can absorb more micro-burst traffic than DT.
High Society in a Workers' Society: Work, Community and Kibbutz

The recent attention paid to corporate culture by managerial gurus has revived interest in the relationship between occupation and community, particularly the influence of social organisation upon work experience. Examination of kibbutz industry supplements these contemporary debates by extending the analysis into a form of work organisation formally devoid of managerial control, instead determined by those informal social relations identified by writers critical of corporate culture. Indeed, kibbutz industrial workers find relative compensations to unpleasant, tedious and demanding work through intense social interaction. Tightly cohesive work groups provide both a defence mechanism against the brutality of the work and, through the creation of group work norms, act as a spur to ensure productivity. Awareness of this dialectical relationship between occupation and community is not new. However, the qualitative analysis presented of the communal socialism of the kibbutz does provide a unique insight into the function of social relationships within the organisation of industrial work beyond that usually examined in either capitalist or state socialist economies.