Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Educational Policy in Nigeria from the Colonial Era to the Post-Independence Period

There is a widened western educational gap between the north and south of Nigeria with the predominantly Muslim areas of the north lagging behind due to some historical antecedents. In the colonial era the British educational policy did not address the aspirations of the people leading to a clamour for change in the post-independence era resulting in the first indigenous National Policy on Education in 1977. Changes have resulted in three revised editions of the national educational policy. This paper reviews the educational policy in the Federal Republic of Nigeria since 1944, highlighting specific issues on the disparity between educational policy and the implementation in context of the wider socio-economic and political development process. This is a case study of the peculiarity of educational policy development in a pluralistic society and developing country, with unity and developmental concerns.
Biodiversity Meets the Atmosphere: A Global View of Forest Canopies

The forest canopy is the functional interface between 90% of Earth's terrestrial biomass and the atmosphere. Multidisciplinary research in the canopy has expanded concepts of global species richness, physiological processes, and the provision of ecosystem services. Trees respond in a species-specific manner to elevated carbon dioxide levels, while climate change threatens plant-animal interactions in the canopy and will likely alter the production of biogenic aerosols that affect cloud formation and atmospheric chemistry.
Innate Nuclear Sensor IFI16 Translocates into the Cytoplasm during the Early Stage of In Vitro Human Cytomegalovirus Infection and Is Entrapped in the Egressing Virions during the Late Stage

ABSTRACT Intrinsic immune mechanisms mediated by constitutively expressed proteins termed “restriction factors” provide frontline antiviral defense. We recently demonstrated that the DNA sensor IFI16 restricts human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) replication by downregulating viral early and late but not immediate-early mRNAs and their protein expression. We show here that at an early time point during the in vitro infection of low-passage-number human embryonic lung fibroblasts, IFI16 binds to HCMV DNA. However, during a later phase following infection, IFI16 is mislocalized to the cytoplasmic virus assembly complex (AC), where it colocalizes with viral structural proteins. Indeed, upon its binding to pUL97, IFI16 undergoes phosphorylation and relocalizes to the cytoplasm of HCMV-infected cells. ESCRT (endosomal sorting complex required for transport) machinery regulates the translocation of IFI16 into the virus AC by sorting and trafficking IFI16 into multivesicular bodies (MVB), as demonstrated by the interaction of IFI16 with two MVB markers: Vps4 and TGN46. Finally, IFI16 becomes incorporated into the newly assembled virions as demonstrated by Western blotting of purified virions and electron microscopy. Together, these results suggest that HCMV has evolved mechanisms to mislocalize and hijack IFI16, trapping it within mature virions. However, the significance of this IFI16 trapping following nuclear mislocalization remains to be established. IMPORTANCE Intracellular viral DNA sensors and restriction factors are critical components of host defense, which alarm and sensitize immune system against intruding pathogens. We have recently demonstrated that the DNA sensor IFI16 restricts human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) replication by downregulating viral early and late but not immediate-early mRNAs and their protein expression. However, viruses are known to evolve numerous strategies to cope and counteract such restriction factors and neutralize the first line of host defense mechanisms. Our findings describe that during early stages of infection, IFI16 successfully recognizes HCMV DNA. However, in late stages HCMV mislocalizes IFI16 into the cytoplasmic viral assembly complex and finally entraps the protein into mature virions. We clarify here the mechanisms HCMV relies to overcome intracellular viral restriction, which provides new insights about the relevance of DNA sensors during HCMV infection.
Shotgun Proteomic Analysis of Vaginal Fluid From Women in Late Pregnancy

Liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry without prior fractionation (shotgun proteomics) were used to analyze vaginal fluid from patients admitted for signs and symptoms of preterm labor. The patients had an average age of 26.3 ± 5.9 years, a gestational age of 30.5 ± 2.5 weeks, and a median cervical dilation of 1 cm (range, 0-6 cm). None of the patients exhibited signs of vaginal infection at the time of enrollment. Shotgun proteomics yielded reproducible identifications (R = 0.973) of more than 40 proteins in vaginal fluid samples, such as plasma proteins, epithelial structural proteins, and several immunoregulatory proteins, including some that were previously linked to intra-amniotic infection. This initial characterization of the vaginal fluid proteome using a nonbiased, high-throughput technique yields reproducible results in late pregnancy. The presence of host defense proteins in vaginal fluid suggests that this technique may be useful for future study of inflammation-related preterm birth.
The product on smooth and generalized valuations

The product of smooth valuations on manifolds is described in terms of differential forms, Gelfand transforms, and blow-up spaces. It is shown that the product extends partially to generalized valuations and corresponds geometrically to transversal intersections. This result is used to prove a general kinematic formula on compact rank one symmetric spaces.
Antioxidants and infertility treatment, the role of Satureja Khuzestanica: A mini-systematic review

Background: The use of antioxidants in the treatment of infertility has been suggested and recent studies have indicated that oral administration of Satureja Khuzestanica essential oil (SKEO) to rats induces significant antioxidative effects. Objective: This systematic review was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of antioxidants in infertility and also to assess the effectiveness of Satureja Khuzestanica in infertility management. Materials and Methods: Pubmed, Scopus, and Cochrane Library were searched for relevant trials published from respective database inception dates to August 2010. Study selection, and data extraction were performed by authors. Results: Fifteen trials on evaluation of antioxidants in infertility and seven studies on the effectiveness of Satureja Khuzestanica were identified. Only 4 of the 15 trials were with application of allocation concealment and three studies were done in in-vitro environment. Despite the methodological and clinical heterogeneity of the trials, 14 of the 15 (93.33%) trials showed an improvement in either sperm quality or pregnancy rate after antioxidant therapy. The human and animal studies of Satureja Khuzestanica showed a significant antioxidative potential of the plant and its effectiveness for infertility improvement. Conclusion: The use of oral antioxidants in infertility could improve sperm quality and pregnancy rates. Improved fertility observed by SKEO in rats might be due to its antioxidative effect. Further studies and clinical trials in humans are necessary to evaluate SKEO effectiveness in fertility disturbances.
Rational and Non-Rational Reasons for Gender Representaition

This article renders the analysis of such a problem of full or partial change of person's gender-role characteristics that is expressed in gender representation. This happens when the necessity to present person's natural social gender becomes less eminent and one has possibility to choose his/her gender identity. Rational and non-rational reasons and gender representation factors are also introduced and basic types of gender representation are named.
The relationships between executive dysfunction and frontal hypometabolism in Alzheimer's disease

A series of tasks assessing executive functions was administered to patients with Alzheimer's disease and control subjects. Two groups of Alzheimer patients were examined: patients with hypometabolism restricted to the posterior (temporal and parietal) cerebral areas and patients with hypometabolism in both posterior and anterior (frontal) cerebral areas. The performance of the Alzheimer patients was inferior to control subjects on all executive tasks. However, the two groups of Alzheimer patients did not differ from each other on all tasks except one. These data indicate that frontal lobe hypometabolism is not necessary to produce executive impairment in Alzheimer's disease. Consequently, executive dysfunction could be the consequence of a disconnection process between posterior and anterior cerebral areas. Introduction. The presence of executive dysfunction relatively early in Alzheimer's disease is now well established (e.g. Collette et al., 1999a). However, there exists at present some debate concerning the neurobiological substrates of these deficits. Indeed, for some authors, executive impairment is specifically related to frontal lobe impairment (e.g. Shallice, 1988) but frontal lobe dysfunction does not seem to be a prominent feature in the earlier stages of the disease (Kennedy & Frackowiak, 1994). In addition, other authors suggest that executive control requires the integration of information coming from different cerebral areas (e.g. Collette et al., 1999b). Consistent with that interpretation, recent studies described Alzheimer's disease as a disconnection process between different cerebral areas (Morris, 1994). Consequently, the aim of this study was to explore the executive functioning of Alzheimer patients with hypometabolism restricted to posterior (temporal and parietal) cerebral areas or hypometabolism in both posterior and anterior (frontal) cerebral areas. Indeed, the existence of a larger executive impairment in Alzheimer patient with posterior and frontal hypometabolism than in patients with only posterior hypometabolism would be
Propriedades psicométricas da escala baptista de depressão infanto-juvenil (EBADEP-IJ)

O objetivo da presente pesquisa foi buscar evidencias de validade baseada na relacao com variaveis externas para a Escala Baptista de Depressao (Versao Infanto-Juvenil) - EBADEP-IJ, o Inventario de Percepcao do Suporte Familiar (IPSF), a Escala de Percepcao do Suporte Social (EPSUS), com utilizacao do Inventario de Depressao Infantil (CDI) como medida auxiliar. Participaram do estudo 241 alunos, sendo 167 (69,3%) do sexo feminino, com idades entre 8 e 17 anos (M=14,0; DP=2,4), de escolas publicas de uma cidade do interior do Estado de Sao Paulo. Os participantes responderam de forma coletiva, em sala de aula, a um questionario de identificacao, seguido da EBADEP-IJ ou do CDI, bem como do IPSF e da EPSUS. Os resultados apontaram para uma correlacao moderada/alta para a EBADEP-IJ/CDI com o IPSF e baixa/moderada e negativa entre a EBADEP-IJ/CDI e a EPSUS. Foram encontradas evidencias de validade baseada na relacao com variaveis externas para a EBADEP-IJ.
Joint scheduling and power allocation in Cognitive Radio systems

This paper investigates a joint spectrum scheduling and power allocation problem in Cognitive Radio (CR) network composed of several secondary (SU) and primary users (PU). The objective is to minimize the overall SU system power consumption (over several orthogonal frequency bands) under minimum Quality of Service (QoS) constraints, maximum peak and average interference to the PUs constraints. The main challenge lies in the non-convexity of the problem because of the discrete spectrum scheduling policies. We overcome this issue by considering a simpler and convex problem based on Lagrangian relaxation. It turns out that, this problem has discrete solutions which are the optimal solutions to our initial non-convex problem. We propose an iterative sub-gradient algorithm to compute the optimal solution, when it exists, assuming that the channels are drawn randomly. In the case of symmetric systems, this algorithm is not suitable. Therefore, we study such a case for which we give an analytical solution. Several numerical results that sustain and give insight into the resolution of this problem are also provided.
Novel pathogen-specific primers for the detection of "Agrobacterium vitis" and "Agrobacterium tumefaciens"

To detect agrobacteria causing crown gall disease of grapevine novel virulence and oncogene specific primer combinations were tested on Agrobacterium vitis and Agrobacterium tumefaciens strains including most opine types found in grapevines. Reproducible detection of all the tested pathogens in a single reaction was only possible with multiplex PCR using mixtures of virulence-, or oncogene specific primers. A primer combination including pehA, virF and virD2 gene-specific oligonucleotides amplified the corresponding fragments from nearly all strains included and distinguished A. vitis and A. tumefaciens strains carrying octopine or nopaline pTis and A. vitis vitopine strains. A second set of primers designed to amplify the T-DNA auxin genes iaaH and iaaM detected all of the tested pathogens and, as in the case of virF- , and virD2- specific primers, A. vitis vitopine strains formed also a distinct group. These data were further confirmed using opine synthase-, or 6b gene-specific primers that also allowed the identification and distinction of octopine and nopaline as well as vitopine isolates of A. vitis . Thus, a wide range of agrobacteria occurring on grapevine were detected and identified. On the other hand, our results confirm that vitopine-type agrobacteria form a distinct group within the genus Agrobacterium .
The Influence of Collective Behavior on Pacing in Endurance Competitions

A number of theoretical models have been proposed in recent years to explain pacing strategies observed in individual competitive endurance events. These have typically related to the internal regulatory processes that inform the making of decisions relating to muscular work rate. Despite a substantial body of research which has investigated the influence of collective group dynamics on individual behaviors in various animal species, this issue has not been comprehensively studied in individual athletic events. This is somewhat surprising given that athletes often directly compete in close proximity to one another, and that collective behavior has also been observed in other human environments including pedestrian interactions and financial market trading. Whilst the reasons for adopting collective behavior are not fully understood, collective behavior is thought to result from individual agents following simple local rules that result in seemingly complex large systems that act to confer some biological advantage to the collective as a whole. Although such collective behaviors may generally be beneficial, competitive endurance events are complicated by the fact that increasing levels of physiological disruption as activity progresses may compromise the ability of some individuals to continue to interact with other group members. This could result in early fatigue and relative underperformance due to suboptimal utilization of physiological resources by some athletes. Alternatively, engagement with a collective behavior may benefit all due to a reduction in the complexity of decisions to be made and a subsequent reduction in cognitive loading and mental fatigue. This paper seeks evidence for collective behavior in previously published analyses of pacing behavior and proposes mechanisms through which it could potentially be either beneficial, or detrimental to individual performance. It concludes with suggestions for future research to enhance understanding of this phenomenon.
Far-Red Light-Mediated Seedling Development in Arabidopsis Involves FAR-RED INSENSITIVE 219/JASMONATE RESISTANT 1-Dependent and -Independent Pathways

Plant growth and development is often regulated by the interaction of environmental factors such as light and various phytohormones. Arabidopsis FAR-RED INSENSITIVE 219 (FIN219)/JASMONATE RESISTANT 1 (JAR1) participates in phytochrome A-mediated far-red (FR) light signaling and interacts with different light signaling regulators. FIN219/JAR1 is a jasmonic acid (JA)-conjugating enzyme responsible for the formation of JA-isoleucine. However, how FIN219/JAR1 integrates FR light and JA signaling remains largely unknown. We used a microarray approach to dissect the effect of fin219 mutation on the interaction of FR light and JA signaling. The fin219-2 mutant was less sensitive than the wild type to various concentrations of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) under low and high FR light. High FR light reduced the sensitivity of Arabidopsis seedlings to MeJA likely through FIN219. Intriguingly, in response to MeJA, FIN219 levels showed a negative feedback regulation. Further microarray assay revealed that FR light could regulate gene expression by FIN219-dependent or -independent pathways. The expression profiles affected in fin219-2 indicated that FIN219/JAR1 plays a critical role in the integration of multiple hormone-related signaling. In particular, FIN219 regulates a number of transcription factors (TFs), including 94 basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) TFs, in response to FR light and MeJA. Loss-of-function mutants of some bHLH TFs affected by FIN219 showed altered responses to MeJA in the regulation of hypocotyl and root elongation. Thus, FIN219/JAR1 is tightly regulated in response to exogenous MeJA. It also interacts with multiple plant hormones to modulate hypocotyl and root elongation of Arabidopsis seedlings likely by regulating a group of TFs.
Quantum behaved particle swarm optimization for data clustering with multiple objectives

Clustering is an important tool in many fields such as exploratory data mining and pattern recognition. It consists in organizing a large data set into groups of objects that are more similar to each other than to those in other groups. Despite its use for over three decades, it is still subject to a lot of controversy. In this paper, we cast clustering as a Pareto based multi-objective optimization problem which is handled using a quantum behaved particle swarm optimization algorithm. The search process is carried out over the space of cluster centroids with the aim to find partitions that optimize two objectives simultaneously, namely compactness and connectivity. Global best leader selection is performed using a hybrid method based on sigma values and crowding distance. The proposed algorithm has been tested using synthetic and real data sets and compared to the state of the art methods. The results obtained are very competitive and display good performance both in terms of the cluster validity measure and in terms of the ability to find trade-off partitions especially in the case of close clusters.
Bronchiolitis obliterans in the 1990s in Korea and the United States.

STUDY OBJECTIVES Our current knowledge of pediatric bronchiolitis obliterans (BO) is based largely on a few small series of patients that were reported in the older literature. In these older cases, the mortality rate was high. This study was conducted to investigate the characteristics of pediatric BO cases in two different countries. DESIGN We extracted specific information regarding predisposing factors, symptoms and signs, diagnostic studies, treatment, and outcome from the medical records of 31 children who received diagnoses of BO at four university medical centers in Korea and the United States in the 1990s. RESULTS The large number of Asian children reflects a clustering of cases in Korea due to adenovirus and Mycoplasma pneumoniae epidemics. The characteristic diagnostic features of BO were present in 29 of 30 high-resolution CT (HRCT) studies. Seven of nine children who underwent biopsies had histologic confirmations of BO. In two patients whose biopsy results were nondiagnostic, the diagnosis was established by HRCT together with pulmonary function testing results that were consistent with nonreversible small airways obstruction. Fifteen children (48.4%) had evidence of hypoxemia. At present, all but one are alive. Patients with elevated severity-of-illness scores were observed to have increased likelihoods of lung transplantation or death. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that BO has a good overall prognosis and that the mortality rate has declined over the past decade. This could be related primarily to the use of HRCT for accurate diagnosis and the availability of pediatric lung transplantation. BO cases in Korea were associated with infectious epidemics, whereas those in United States had variable predisposing factors.
A quantum decoding algorithm of the simplex code

The paper is devoted to the quantum implementation of the decoding of the (classical) simplex code of length n. The implementation attempts at trading off time complexity with circuit complexity of decoding. We suggest a quantum decoding algorithm that operates on a circuit of size O(log n) and has time complexity O(log n). It also requires an additional circuit of size O(n) needed to gain bitwise access to the input vector. The best known classical parallel algorithm for this problem requires circuit size O(n log n) and time O(log n).
XPath lookup queries in P2P networks

We address the problem of querying XML data over a P2P network. In P2P networks, the allowed kinds of queries are usually exact-match queries over file names. We discuss the extensions needed to deal with XML data and XPath queries. A single peer can hold a whole document or a partial/complete fragment of the latter. Each XML fragment/document is identified by a distinct path expression, which is encoded in a distributed hash table. Our framework differs from content-based routing mechanisms, biased towards finding the most relevant peers holding the data. We perform fragments placement and enable fragments lookup by solely exploiting few path expressions stored on each peer. By taking advantage of quasi-zero replication of global catalogs, our system supports fast full and partial XPath querying. To this purpose, we have extended the Chord simulator and performed an experimental evaluation of our approach.
Factors influencing choice of business majorssome additional evidence: a research note

This paper reports the findings of a study designed to examine factors that influence business students choice of major. Data were gathered through a questionnaire survey of second year college students. Students were asked to indicate the relative importance of 13 possible influences on their choice of major. The findings show significant differences in the importance of criteria motivating the selection of accounting compared to the business majors of finance, marketing and management. Students selecting accounting were highly distinguishable from second year students selecting marketing and management and were most similar to, but able to be distinguished from, finance majors. Accounting majors placed the most importance on external factors such as future earnings and career option. These findings should be useful in developing a strategy to attract students to accounting.
Towards Practical Privacy Preserving Technology Adoption Analysis Service Platform

Technology adoption analysis is one of the key exercises in managing technology innovation and diffusion. In this paper, we present a service platform for technology adoption analysis, with aim tailored to provide service provisioning to potential technology users and providers. With two service models provided in this platform, a practical privacy preserving framework is developed to help relieve privacy concerns of the platform participants. To illustrate the feasibility of the privacy preserving framework of this platform, an adoption process for RFID technology adoption analysis in logistics and supply chain management is presented to identify key sensitive attributes for background knowledge leading to unique identification of an individual or company.