Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vanishing Chromosomal Inversion Clines in Drosophila subobscura from Chile: Is Behavioral Thermoregulation to Blame?

Chromosomal inversion clines paralleling the long-standing ones in native Palearctic populations of Drosophila subobscura evolved swiftly after this species invaded the Americas in the late 1970s and early 1980s. However, the new clines did not consistently continue to converge on the Old World baseline. Our recent survey of Chilean populations of D. subobscura shows that inversion clines have faded or even changed sign with latitude. Here, we investigate the hypothesis that this fading of inversion clines might be due to the Bogert effect, namely, that flies’ thermoregulatory behavior has eventually compensated for environmental variation in temperature, thus buffering selection on thermal-related traits. We show that latitudinal divergence in thermal preference (Tp) has evolved in Chile for females, with higher-latitude flies having a lower mean Tp. Plastic responses in Tp also lessen latitudinal thermal variation because flies developed at colder temperatures prefer warmer microclimates. Our results are consistent with the idea that active behavioral thermoregulation might buffer environmental variation and reduce the potential effect of thermal selection on other traits as chromosomal arrangements.
Methylation Profiling of Multiple Tumor Suppressor Genes in Hepatocellular Carcinoma and the Epigenetic Mechanism of 3OST2 Regulation

DNA methylation is considered as a significant mechanism that silences tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) and could be used in the early diagnosis of cancer. Histone modifications often work together with DNA methylation; however, how these epigenetic alterations regulate TSGs remains unclear. Here, we determined the methylation status of ten TSGs (3OST2, ppENK, CHFR, LKB1, THBS1, HIC1, SLIT2, EDNRB, COX2, and CLDN7) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and corresponding noncancerous tissues. Methylation profiling revealed that four genes had very high frequencies of methylation in HCCs, but interestingly, similar high frequencies were also detected in corresponding noncancerous tissues (97.9% vs 95.8% for SLIT2, 93.8% vs 81.3% for EDNRB, 66.7% vs 85.4% for HIC1, and 56.3% vs 56.3% for ppENK, P > 0.05). Only the 3OST2 gene was frequently methylated in HCCs and there was significant difference between HCCs and corresponding noncancerous tissues (68.8% vs 37.5%, P < 0.05). 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-Aza-CdR) or trichostatin A (TSA) alone could partially reverse 3OST2 methylation, and their combination resulted in complete reversal. UHRF1 and histone H3R8me2s were both enriched on the hypermethylated 3OST2 promoter, but H3R8me2a was not. After 5-Aza-CdR or TSA treatment, the UHRF1 and H3R8me2s enrichment was decreased, while H3R8me2a enrichment increased. We demonstrated that 3OST2 methylation may play a critical role in the earliest steps of hepatocarcinogenesis and is directly regulated by UHRF1. Furthermore, H3R8me2s acted as a repressive mark, while H3R8me2a was correlated with 3OST2 transcriptional activity.
NOTES RELATING TO NEWTON SERIES FOR THE RIEMANN ZETA FUNCTION

This paper consists of the extended working notes and observations made during the development of a joint paper[? ] with Philippe Flajolet on the Riemann zeta function. Most of the core ideas of that paper, of which a majority are due to Flajolet, are reproduced here; however, the choice of wording used here, and all errors and omissions are my own fault. This set of notes contains considerably more content, although is looser and sloppier, and is an exploration of tangents, dead-ends, and ideas shooting off in uncertain directions. The finite differences or Newton series of certain expressions involving the Riemann zeta function are explored. These series may be given an asymptotic expansion by converting them to Norlund-Rice integrals and applying saddle-point integration techniques. Numerical evaluation is used to confirm the appropriateness of the asymptotic expansion. The results extend on previous results for such series, and a general form for Dirichlet L-functions is given. Curiously, because successive terms in the asymptotic expansion are exponentially small, these series lead to simple near-identities. A resemblance to similar near-identities arising in complex multiplication is noted.
Aberrant expression of NEK2 and its clinical significance in non-small cell lung cancer

The purpose of the present study was to identify a potential biomarker that is more effective than those already available for the prognosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. The expression of never in mitosis gene A (NIMA)-related kinase 2 (NEK2), minichromosome maintenance complex component 7 (Mcm7) and Ki67 was evaluated in 270 NSCLC tissues using immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence techniques. Associations between protein expression and clinicopathological characters were assessed, and the impact on overall survival was analyzed. High levels of NEK2, Mcm7 and Ki67 expression were detected in 25.9, 35.2 and 24.4% of the NSCLC tissues. Overexpression of NEK2 was detected more frequently in cases with high T and N stages (P<0.0001 and P=0.011, respectively). Correlations were present between the expression of NEK2, Mcm7 and Ki67. Kaplan-Meier curves indicated that the patients with overexpressed NEK2, Mcm7 and Ki67 had a poorer overall survival time compared to those with low expression for all stages (P<0.0001). In particular, the patients with NEK2 overexpression had a poorer prognosis. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that NEK2, Mcm7 and Ki67 are independent prognostic indicators for NSCLC. In conclusion, the data indicate that compared with Mcm7 and Ki67, NEK2 may be a more effective tumor proliferation marker of poor prognosis for NSCLC patients, and that NEK2 may represent a novel potential target for NSCLC therapeutic intervention.
The Association of Vitamin D Status with Dyslipidaemia and Biomarkers of Endothelial Cell Activation in Older Australians

Background/Aims: Vitamin D has been investigated for many non-skeletal effects. The objective of this study was to determine whether circulating lipids, systemic inflammation, and biomarkers of endothelial cell activation varied with the vitamin D status of older Australians. Methods: One hundred and one participants were proportionately and randomly sampled across tertiles of 25 hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) from a larger cohort of free living older adults (T1 median = 97; T2 median = 74.5; T3 median = 56.8 nmol/L). Overnight fasting blood samples were assayed for 25(OH)D, parathyroid hormone (PTH), insulin, triacylglycerol (TAG), total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). Markers of systemic inflammation (high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)) and endothelial activation (hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), P-selectin and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule (sVCAM), soluble intracellular adhesion molecule (sICAM)) were determined. A general linear model multivariate analysis with a backward elimination procedure was performed. Results: Eighty-three participants (48 women, 35 men), aged 65 ± 7.7 years, BMI 28 ± 4.5 kg/m2, with complete data were analyzed. The final parsimonious model controlled for age, gender, BMI, and McAuley’s index, but excluded season, medications, and PTH. There were significant differences across 25(OH)D tertiles in TC (T1 < T3, p = 0.003; T2 < T3, p = 0.001), LDL-C (T1 < T3, p = 0.005; T2 < T3, p = 0.001), TAG (T2 < T3, p = 0.026), HGF (T1 > T3, p = 0.009) and sVCAM (T1 > T3, P = 0.04). Conclusions: Higher vitamin D status may protect the endothelium through reduced dyslipidaemia and increased HGF.
Basal Metabolic Rate of Adolescent Modern Pentathlon Athletes: Agreement between Indirect Calorimetry and Predictive Equations and the Correlation with Body Parameters

Purpose The accurate estimative of energy needs is crucial for an optimal physical performance among athletes and the basal metabolic rate (BMR) equations often are not well adjusted for adolescent athletes requiring the use of specific methods, such as the golden standard indirect calorimetry (IC). Therefore, we had the aim to analyse the agreement between the BMR of adolescents pentathletes measured by IC and estimated by commonly used predictive equations. Methods Twenty-eight athletes (17 males and 11 females) were evaluated for BMR, using IC and the predictive equations Harris and Benedict (HB), Cunningham (CUN), Henry and Rees (HR) and FAO/WHO/UNU (FAO). Body composition was obtained using DXA and sexual maturity data were retrieved through validated questionnaires. The correlations among anthropometric variables an IC were analysed by T-student test and ICC, while the agreement between IC and the predictive equations was analysed according to Bland and Altman and by survival-agreement plotting. Results The whole sample average BMR measured by IC was significantly different from the estimated by FAO (p<0.05). Adjusting data by gender FAO and HR equations were statistically different from IC (p <0.05) among males, while female differed only for the HR equation (p <0.05). Conclusion The FAO equation underestimated athletes’ BMR when compared with IC (T Test). When compared to the golden standard IC, using Bland and Altman, ICC and Survival-Agreement, the equations underestimated the energy needs of adolescent pentathlon athletes up to 300kcal/day. Therefore, they should be used with caution when estimating individual energy requirements in such populations.
Set-Point Manipulation Approach toward Overcoming Limitation of Closed Architectural Framework

—In this paper, a set-point manipulation approach towards achieving control adaptation in a closed architectural control framework is proposed and designed. The approach is designed to allow the ﬂexibility to incorporate control adaptation which is not easily accomplished with a built-in proprietary controller, such as an appropriate anti integral windup measure (AIWM). The approach is amenable to closed systems without the need to replace the built-in controller. The realization of the proposed conﬁguration will be illustrated with respect to a PID controller although the framework proposed is general allowing the use of higher order controller too. Simulation examples and experimental results on the speed control of an electric vehicle will be duly furnished to show the motivation for such an approach and the improved performance achievable with closed-architectural systems.
Context switching for fast key selection in text entry applications

This paper presents context switching as an alternative to selection by dwell time. The technique trades screen space for comfort and speed. By replicating the interface on two separate regions called contexts, the user can comfortably explore the whole content of a context without the effects of the Midas touch problem. Focus within a context is set by a short dwell time and fast selection is done by switching contexts. We present experimental results for a text entry application with 7 participants that show significant speed improvement over traditional fixed dwell time gaze controlled keyboards. After 8 sessions, 6 participants were able to type about 12 words per minute (wpm), and the fastest participant was able to type above 20 wpm with error rate under 2%.
Apology Strategies in Scream Queens (2015)

The aim of this undergraduating thesis is to classify and identify apology strategies proposed by Cohen and Olshtain (1983) and its combinations in television series Scream Queens (2015), as a television series that illustrates how U.S. college students apologize. The data used in this research are utterances of Scream Queens (2015) season 1.The apologies found in the television series are classified based on the apology strategies proposed by Cohen and Olshtain (1983) which consist of: Expression of Apology (EA), Explanation of Account (Eac), Offer of Repair (OR), Acknowledgement Responsibility for Offense (ARO), and Promise of Forbearance (PF). Each apology speech act is classified based on the first strategy used. Utterances with two or more apology strategies are then identified and classified again according to the combinations. In this research, the total of apology strategies found thoughout their data source are 124. The most used apology strategy is EA with 59 utterances. There are 26 combinations and 4 standalone apology strategies in the television series. The most used combination is EA-EAc with 21 utterances. While the most used standalone apology strategy is EAc with 34 utterances.
La formación de precios de las acciones alrededor del pago de dividendos en el mercado de capitales español

-Restinze7z. -Palabras Claves. -l. I1ztroduccio~z. -2. Metodologia. 3. Base de da tos . 4 . Alzalisis de ~*esultados . -5. Corzclusio~zes. -6. Anexo. Bibliografin. 1 N the present paper the effect that the dividend payment has on the stock prices in the Spanish Capital Market is analyzed through the residual stock return around the ex-dividend date. This study is based on the price reactions in taking into account the most representative shares in the Madrid Stock Exchange during the period 1980-1992. The results let us to indicate that, in the Spanish Capital Market, the dividend payment affects, on the average, in a positive sense on the stock price behavior, particularly on the ex-dividend date.
Asymmetric Dimethylarginine (ADMA) Levels Display a Morning Peak in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction

High Asymmetric Dimethylarginine (ADMA) levels are associated with increased platelet activity, elevated blood pressure, vasoconstriction and impaired vascular relaxation. We hypothesized that the myocardial infarction morning peak of occurrence is closely related to a morning peak of ADMA levels. We performed a cross-sectional study among patients with documented myocardial infarction who had been enrolled in the prospective MISSION! Intervention Study. In total, serum ADMA levels were measured in their acute setting of myocardial infarction in 120 patients. The frequency of myocardial infarction onset of symptoms and emergency coronary catheterization and the ADMA levels displayed a similar daily pattern with a morning peak between 06:00–11:59 h. The absolute ADMA levels peak was between 06:00–07:59 h with a median (interquartile range) peak value of 1.01 (0.84–1.21) μmol/L for the n = 9 patients vs. 0.75 (0.61–0.89) μmol/L for the remaining 111 patients admitted throughout the rest of the 24-hour interval (p = 0.003 for between groups comparison). The amplitude (95% confidence interval) of the circadian variation of ADMA levels was 0.08 μmol/L (0.004–0.16) with p = 0.042 for statistic model significance. In conclusion, ADMA levels display a 24-hour variation with a significant morning peak in patients with acute myocardial infarction. These findings may relate ADMA levels to the acute onset of thrombotic cardiovascular events.
Graph-Based Marginal Ranking for Update Summarization

Update summarization is to summarize a document collection B given that the users have already read another document collection A, which has time stamp prior to that of B. An important and challenging issue in update summarization is that contents in B already covered by A should be excluded from the update summary. In this paper, we propose a graphbased regularization framework MarginRank for update summarization. MarginRank extends the cost function of Zhou’s Manifold Ranking with suppression terms, suppression of A on B, to fulfil the assumption that users have read A. MarginRank ranks sentences in B in a way that the top ranked sentences are most important and at the same time cover different contents from A. Experiments on the benchmark data sets TAC 2008 and 2009 show the effectiveness of the proposed method.
On the estimation of power amplifier efficiency for modulated signals

This paper presents a new closed form expression for the average efficiency of power amplifiers (PA) driven by modulated signals. Based on an approximation for the PA I-V curve, the PA output power and the DC current are estimated using the probability distribution function (PDF) of the modulated signal. The efficiency as a function of transistor parameters and the bias point is estimated. The closed form values are then compared to the simulated data. It is shown that the estimated efficiency values are in agreement with the simulated ones.
Preface Theoretical Perspectives on Local E-government Adoption

Some of the reasons for this are local governments are so numerous and, therefore, make a good test case of the application of ICT diffusion. In addition, local governments are the first line of contact with citizens for simple things such as retrieving information to more complicated tasks like paying taxes online. Therefore, there is a natural tendency for researchers to want to study e-government adoption at the local level. The growth of research on e-government has rapidly expanded, especially since the commercializa-tion of the Internet in the 1990s. This is most noticeably in terms of the number of publications that address important e-government issues that cut across many areas of public administration research. E-government adoption and implementation are critical to study, especially with local governments, given the nature of what they provide to citizens. Many of the major transformational benefits often cited about e-government are examined through studies of local governments. Most of the books in this field have broadly studied the impact of e-government on all levels of government; this study is different in that it focuses on local governments, which have a very direct line of contact with citizens, given their intensive service delivery role. There are five sections in this book, which examine different dimensions of e-government adoption and implementation at the local level. The first section examines theoretical perspectives on the adoption of e-government. The Chapters in this section provide a theoretical lens for which to consider other Chapters in this book. There is an examination of the how e-government fits into the stages of e-government growth and how it has changed, or has the potential to change, the nature of municipal operations. One important aspect in the study of local e-government is its impact on the public sector organizations. In Chapter I, Weerakkody and Dhillon make the argument that scholars need to study transformational e-government, or what they label " t-government, " as one of the most important stages of adoption. The second Chapter by Schuppan, examines the idea and application of Informatized Public Service Networks (IPSN) in local e-government, examining the potential of changing the size or possibly eliminating levels of government through information networks. King, in Chapter III, examines citizen-centric e-government in the United Kingdom using the stages of e-government growth models. Paskaleva, in Chapter IV, examines a theoretical framework of e-governance through an integrated city e-governance policy framework as a way …
European Asylum Policy

Policy towards asylum seekers has been a controversial topic for more than a decade. Rising numbers of asylum applications have been met with ever-tougher policies to deter them. Following a period of policy harmonisation, the EU has reached a crucial stage in the development of a new Common European Asylum System. This paper seeks to shed light on what form this should take. It summarises the development of policy to date and it argues that these policies have been too tough, even from the point of view of EU citizens. Using an economic framework, it examines scenarios with different degrees of policy harmonisation and integration among EU countries. Finally, it argues that there is an important role for enhanced burden-sharing arrangements.
Is CS1 better with the same lecture and lab instructor?

This paper presents results from a four-semester classroom experiment to assess whether the introductory programming lecture and closed-laboratory courses would be more effective if they were taught by the same or different instructors. Using a common final exam and lab practical as dependent variables, we determined there is no statistically significant effect on learning outcomes by having the same instructor for lecture and lab. Results of a qualitative survey, however, showed a statistically significant difference in student satisfaction for the same-instructor group over the different-instructor group.
An Identity Based Secure and Fast Authentication Protocol in Wireless Mobile Networks

With the development of wireless mobile networks, more security issues, such as identity spoof, DoS attack, ARP attack, have been exposed out recently. Meanwhile, mobile nodes require higher performance of handover. However, existing solutions cannot solve the problems flexibly and effectively. In this paper, we present an identity based secure and fast authentication protocol (IBSFAP) for mobile nodes to support their secure and fast handover among different access points. Through experiments and analysis, we find that the proposed protocol has the following merits. First, it can make the mobile nodes and the accessing network establish a mutual trustworthy relationship to avoid any spoof from the other side. Second, it can provide the mobile nodes with a secure and fast handover among different access points very well. Third, the proposed protocol needs less computation and transmission resources to finish its function.
Psychometric Properties of the Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire Short-Form (PIUQ-SF-6) in a Nationally Representative Sample of Adolescents

Despite the large number of measurement tools developed to assess problematic Internet use, numerous studies use measures with only modest investigation into their psychometric properties. The goal of the present study was to validate the short (6-item) version of the Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire (PIUQ) on a nationally representative adolescent sample (n = 5,005; mean age 16.4 years, SD = 0.87) and to determine a statistically established cut-off value. Data were collected within the framework of the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs project. Results showed an acceptable fit of the original three-factor structure to the data. In addition, a MIMIC model was carried out to justify the need for three distinct factors. The sample was divided into users at-risk of problematic Internet use and those with no-risk using a latent profile analysis. Two latent classes were obtained with 14.4% of adolescents belonging to the at-risk group. Concurrent and convergent validity were tested by comparing the two groups across a number of variables (i.e., time spent online, academic achievement, self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and preferred online activities). Using the at-risk latent profile analysis class as the gold standard, a cut-off value of 15 (out of 30) was suggested based on sensitivity and specificity analyses. In conclusion, the brief version of the (6-item) PIUQ also appears to be an appropriate measure to differentiate between Internet users at risk of developing problematic Internet use and those not at risk. Furthermore, due to its brevity, the shortened PIUQ is advantageous to utilize within large-scale surveys assessing many different behaviors and/or constructs by reducing the overall number of survey questions, and as a consequence, likely increasing completion rates.