Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Viability costs of condition-dependent sexual male display in a drumming wolf spider

According to the conditional handicap models females use male ornaments as honest signals of male viability. The assumptions for honest signalling are that the traits are costly and that they reflect male phenotypic condition, and hence optimal trait size is largest in the most viable males. However, experimental evidence for the costs of signalling are scarce. In this study we experimentally tested whether acoustic signalling, drumming, in a wolf spider Hygrolycosa rubrofasciata is a condition dependent, costly trait, and thus offers an honest signal of quality to females. Males of this species court females by drumming dry leaves with their abdomen. Females prefer to mate with males of high drumming rate, but body mass of males does not affect female choice. We manipulated phenotypic condition of males by keeping them in high, intermediate and low food levels. Males in a high food level treatment maintained their drumming rate at a high level, while males with intermediate and low food levels exhibited a reduction in drumming rates. Thus, phenotypic condition of the males affects their sexual signalling. We induced another set of males to increase their drumming activity by presenting females in proximity. These males suffered higher mortality and lost significantly more weight than other males, confirming that drumming is costly. However, within the increased treatment group males that drummed most actively survived better than less active males. Thus, males vary in their ability to bear the costs of drumming, which suggests that drumming is an honest signal of male quality (= conditional handicap) for females.
Critical period regulation across multiple timescales

Brain plasticity is dynamically regulated across the life span, peaking during windows of early life. Typically assessed in the physiological range of milliseconds (real time), these trajectories are also influenced on the longer timescales of developmental time (nurture) and evolutionary time (nature), which shape neural architectures that support plasticity. Properly sequenced critical periods of circuit refinement build up complex cognitive functions, such as language, from more primary modalities. Here, we consider recent progress in the biological basis of critical periods as a unifying rubric for understanding plasticity across multiple timescales. Notably, the maturation of parvalbumin-positive (PV) inhibitory neurons is pivotal. These fast-spiking cells generate gamma oscillations associated with critical period plasticity, are sensitive to circadian gene manipulation, emerge at different rates across brain regions, acquire perineuronal nets with age, and may be influenced by epigenetic factors over generations. These features provide further novel insight into the impact of early adversity and neurodevelopmental risk factors for mental disorders.
Zebrafish rbm8a and magoh mutants reveal EJC developmental functions and new 3′UTR intron-containing NMD targets

Many post-transcriptional mechanisms operate via mRNA 3′UTRs to regulate protein expression, and such controls are crucial for development. We show that homozygous mutations in two zebrafish exon junction complex (EJC) core genes rbm8a and magoh leads to muscle disorganization, neural cell death, and motor neuron outgrowth defects, as well as dysregulation of mRNAs subjected to nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) due to translation termination ≥ 50 nts upstream of the last exon-exon junction. Intriguingly, we find that EJC-dependent NMD also regulates a subset of transcripts that contain 3′UTR introns (3′UI) < 50 nts downstream of a stop codon. Some transcripts containing such stop codon-proximal 3′UI are also NMD-sensitive in cultured human cells and mouse embryonic stem cells. We identify 167 genes that contain a conserved proximal 3′UI in zebrafish, mouse and humans. foxo3b is one such proximal 3′UI-containing gene that is upregulated in zebrafish EJC mutant embryos, at both mRNA and protein levels, and loss of foxo3b function in EJC mutant embryos significantly rescues motor axon growth defects. These data are consistent with EJC-dependent NMD regulating foxo3b mRNA to control protein expression during zebrafish development. Our work shows that the EJC is critical for normal zebrafish development and suggests that proximal 3′UIs may serve gene regulatory function in vertebrates.
Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Markers in SARS-COV-2 Infection and Pneumonia: Case-Control Study.

BACKGROUND/AIM A novel human coronavirus, named SARS-COV-2, has recently caused thousands of deaths all around the world. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress plays an important role in the development of diseases. PATIENTS AND METHODS We aimed to to investigate the relationship between ER stress markers in patients infected with SARS-COV-2 and patients with pneumonia. A total of 9 patients (4 patients diagnosed with pneumonia and 5 patients diagnosed with SARS-COV-2 infection) who admitted to the emergency Department with symptoms of pneumonia and SARS-COV-2 were included in the study. A total of 18 healthy individuals without any known chronic or acute disease and drug use were included as the healthy control group. Serum human glucose regulated protein 78 (GRP78), serum human C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP) and serum human phospho extracellular signal regulated kinase (PERK) levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS GRP78 levels were found to be significantly higher in SARS-COV-2 positive cases compared to individuals in other groups. Serum GRP-78 level median value was statistically significantly higher in SARS-COV-2-positive group compared to the other groups (p=0.0003). Serum PERK level was statistically significantly higher in SARS-COV-2-positive pneumonia cases (p=0.046). CONCLUSION An association was shown between GRP78 and SARS-COV-2 infection. Although a small number of patients was investigated, these results will be important and guide future treatments of SARS-COV-2.
Power and Evolutionary Fitness of Teleosts

The use of optimization arguments in evolutionary biology has been criticized because the methodology requires an assumption about what is being maximized by natural selection. As optimality arguments are often a priori and always speculative, the critics point out that there is no theoretical basis for any maximization principles in biology. They contend that only empirical work can establish if there are some properties of species that are generally maximized by natural selection. I accept this standard for evaluation, and argue that the concept of surplus power, which provides a physiological basis for optimal foraging and life history theory, is related to fitness. Evidence in the form of specific morphological and behavioral traits in teleost fishes is presented to demonstrate that natural selection has increased surplus power. Life history theory is concerned with how power is allocated by organisms to various vital functions; therefore, the specific problem of stock and recruitment in fisheries can.
Mapping the Yeast Protein Interaction Network

To move beyond genes to an understanding of networks, it is necessary to track protein-protein interactions in vivo. Tarassov et al. have used protein-fragment complementation assays, which are based on reassembly of two domains of the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase that have been fused to the proteins of interest, to look at the protein interaction network, the interactome, in yeast. In addition to confirming known interactions within complexes, insights were obtained into the network underlying autophagy, a conserved process by which cells digest their own constituents in response to starvation, and a network underlying cellular polarization during the cell cycle. K. Tarassov, V. Messier, C. R. Landry, S. Radinovic, M. M. Serna Molina, I. Shames, Y. Malitskaya, J. Vogel, H. Bussey, S. W. Michnick, An in vivo map of the yeast protein interactome. Science 320 (5882), 1465-1470 (2008). [Abstract] [Full Text]
Evolution of seed dispersal and recruitment in clonal plants

Previous studies have shown that seedling recruitment occurs sporadically in the population dynamics of many clonal plant species, and that a low rate of seed recruitment is associated with high seed dispersal ability. The aim of the present study was to examine these features of clonal plant life histories from an evolutionary point of view. No significant relationships were detected between recruitment pattern, seed size, seed dispersal, and possession of seed bank. However, a tendency was found that species characterized by a persistent seed bank, lack of seed dispersal traits, or repeated seedling recruitment, possess smaller seeds than do other clonal species. Distributions of fruit and life form characters in 35 genera of clonal plants indicated that traits affecting seed dispersal generally are evolutionarily ancestral in relation to the clonal growth form possessed by extant species. This sequence was found in 32 genera whereas the opposite sequence was found in 3 genera. Thus, seed dispersal features have not evolved as a result of recruitment difficulties in the vicinity of adult plants possessing the extant clonal life form. It is suggested that clonal propagation may have been augmented in lineages where long distance seed dispersal predominates, in order to make genet fitness less dependent on local dispersal by seed. A low rate of seedling recruitment within patches of adult plants is the expected outcome of this scenario. Finally, some aspects of how long term environmental changes may affect seedling recruitment in clonal plants are briefly discussed.
Enzyme activities in the blood plasma of grayling, Thymallus thymallus (Linn.), in the breeding season

Activities of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, glutamate dehydrogenase and creatine kinase were determined in the blood plasma of grayling, Thymallus thymallus, in the pre-spawning, spawning and post-spawning periods. Enzyme activities increased to a maximum in the spawning period and then successively decreased, after spawning, to values close to the initial ones. Only in the case of aspartate aminotransferase did the increased activity level persist after spawning. The temporary but large increase in enzyme activity levels in the plasma of grayling appeared to be a natural and physiological phenomenon accompanying the spawning process.
Disturbance and Diversity in Tropical Rain Forests: The Density Effect

A null model for the effects of treefall gaps on tree species diversity of tropical rain forests is based on the well-known relationship between abundance and diversity: habitats supporting larger numbers of individuals can support more populations and more species than habitats supporting small numbers of individuals. Because seedling establishment and sapling density increase following canopy opening, gaps are often also sites of high species diversity. Both tree density and diversity are likely to be greater in areas of high stand-turnover rates. Thinning and non-catastrophic mortality reduce both density and diversity in areas of low gap frequency. Nevertheless, natural and anthropogenic disturbances, such as logging, have been hypothesized to both enhance and limit species diversity through changes in habitat heterogeneity, shifts in competitive balances among species, and creation of otherwise-rare habitats. Species-accumulation curves can be used to evaluate these alternatives by comparing observed species-abundance patterns with expected changes in diversity due to density effects alone. Topographic variation in density and diversity of shrubs and small saplings at the La Selva (Costa Rica) Biological Station preserve was analyzed as an example. The total number of species for each of 18 sites was estimated by fitting a two-parameter hyperbola (similar to the Michaelis-Menten equation) to sample data using a maximum-likelihood method. Although both density and diversity were higher on slopes than on ridges, total species richness was nevertheless higher on slopes than is predictable from density effects alone. High stand-turnover rates on slopes may enhance tree species diversity through increases in tree density and in habitat heterogeneity.
The effect of prenatal treatments on offspring events in the presence of competing events: an application to a randomized trial of fertility therapies.

When studying the effect of a prenatal treatment on events in the offspring, failure to produce a live birth is a competing event for events in the offspring. A common approach to handle this competing event is reporting both the treatment-specific probabilities of live births and of the event of interest among live births. However, when the treatment affects the competing event, the latter probability cannot be interpreted as the causal effect among live births.Here we provide guidance for researchers interested in the effects of prenatal treatments on events in the offspring in the presence of the competing event "no live birth". We review the total effect of treatment on a composite event and the total effect of treatment on the event of interest. These causal effects are helpful for decision making, but are agnostic about the pathways through which treatment affects the event of interest.Therefore, based on recent work, we also review three causal effects that explicitly consider the pathways through which treatment may affect the event of interest in the presence of competing events: the direct effect of treatment on the event of interest under an intervention to eliminate the competing event, the separable direct and indirect effects of treatment on the event of interest, and the effect of treatment in the principal stratum of those who would have had a live birth irrespective of treatment choice. As an illustrative example, we use a randomized trial of fertility treatments and risk of neonatal complications.
Growth, age at metamorphosis, and sex ratio of northern brook lamprey in a tributary of southern Lake Superior

MEITES, L. 1955. Polarographic techniques. Interscience Publ. , New York. SMIT, H. 1965. Some experiments on the oxygen consumption of goldfish (Carassius auratus L.) in relation to swimming speed. Can. J. Zool. 43:623-633. U. S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE. 1954. Applied mathematics series No. 41. Nat. Bur. Stand. , Wash. , D. C. VON BUDDENBROCK, W. 1936. What physiological problems are of interest to the marine ITES, L. 195 . Polarographic techniques. biologist in his studies of the most important species of fish? Rapp Reunions Cons. Int. Explor. Mer. 101:3-14.
Acupuncture Treatment Modulates the Connectivity of Key Regions of the Descending Pain Modulation and Reward Systems in Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain

Chronic low back pain (cLBP) is a common disorder with unsatisfactory treatment options. Acupuncture has emerged as a promising method for treating cLBP. However, the mechanism underlying acupuncture remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the modulation effects of acupuncture on resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the periaqueductal gray (PAG) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) in patients with cLBP. Seventy-nine cLBP patients were recruited and assigned to four weeks of real or sham acupuncture. Resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected before the first and after the last treatment. Fifty patients completed the study. We found remission of pain bothersomeness in all treatment groups after four weeks, with greater pain relief after real acupuncture compared to sham acupuncture. We also found that real acupuncture can increase VTA/PAG rsFC with the amygdala, and the increased rsFC was associated with decreased pain bothersomeness scores. Baseline PAG-amygdala rsFC could predict four-week treatment response. Our results suggest that acupuncture may simultaneously modulate the rsFC of key regions in the descending pain modulation (PAG) and reward systems (VTA), and the amygdala may be a key node linking the two systems to produce antinociceptive effects. Our findings highlight the potential of acupuncture for chronic low back pain management.
Forthcoming in Journal of Accounting and Economics

This study attempts to provide a comprehensive understanding of the interrelationships among chief financial officers’ (CFOs’) professional qualifications, SOX Section 404 internal control weakness, CFOs’ turnover, CFOs’ qualification improvement, and correction of material weaknesses. We find that firms receiving initial adverse SOX 404 opinions for 2004 have less qualified CFOs. Adverse SOX 404 opinion recipients experience more CFO turnover in 2005, and these firms are more likely to hire CFOs having improved qualifications. Results show that simply hiring a new CFO is not associated with SOX 404 opinion improvement. Opinion improvement requires hiring a better qualified CFO.
CONSUMERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF NEGATIVE EXTERNALITIES AND RESPONSES TO PIGOVIAN TAXES Forthcoming at the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research

Pigovian taxes are time-honored responses to negative externalities in the commercial world: firms that pollute must pay the costs of the damage they do to their broader community. Such localization of costs to those who create them seems rational and fair. But when Pigovian taxes are applied to consumers, how do they respond? Why? We show that to the extent that a given consumer perceives that others’ behavior creates economic costs for them, they better understand and evaluate related communications and are more accepting of Pigovian interventions. We also show that perceived negative externalities explains responses to Pigovian taxes better than other relevant constructs. Further, perceived negative externality scores predict acceptance of marketing communications that emphasize the costs that a given individual behavior has for society as a whole. Finally, we show that responses to Pigovian interventions are driven more strongly by differences in perceived fairness than by other potential causal mechanisms.
06 Lydon article PP_ESRI Vol 43-4

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of Irish mortgage arrears using a new loan-level dataset which incorporates data from four Irish banks. We identify the main characteristics of accounts in arrears and examine the role of ability-to-pay and equity factors in the recent hike in mortgage delinquency rates. We find that borrowers who took out their mortgage for buy-to-let purposes, those with high loan-to-value ratios and those with high repayment burdens are all more likely to be in arrears. This is also the case for borrowers with properties in regions that have suffered more severe economic shocks, as proxied for by changes in the regional unemployment rate. Our empirical analysis suggests that affordability issues and general macroeconomic developments have had an important and sizeable effect on arrears trends over time, suggesting that policy efforts to target the growing level of mortgage arrears need to take account of these issues.
Quality and Quantity in Primary Care Mixed Payment Models: Evidence from Family Health Organizations in Ontario

We study the impact of a mixed capitation model (the Family Health Organization, FHO) on quality and quantity outcomes among primary care physicians in Ontario. Using a panel of administrative data covering one year before and two years after the FHO model was introduced, we find that physicians in the FHO model provide about 6% to 7% fewer services and visits per day, but are between 7% and 11% more likely to achieve preventive care quality targets. These results suggest that the mixed capitation model with contractible quality indicators may be welfare improving relative to the FFS model. JEL classification: I10, I12, I18 Qualité et quantité dans les modèles de financement mixte des soins primaires: résultats pour les organismes de santé familiale en Ontario. On étudie l’impact d’un modèle mixte de capitation (les organismes de santé familiale de l’Ontario) sur les résultats en termes de qualité et quantité du travail des médecins de première ligne en Ontario. A l’aide d’un panel de données administratives couvrant la période allant d’un an avant la mise en place de l’arrangement à deux ans après, on montre que les médecins opérant dans ce cadre ont fourni de 6% à 7% de moins de services et de visites par jour, mais sont entre 7% et 11% plus susceptibles d’avoir réussi à atteindre les cibles de qualité de soins préventifs. Les résultats suggèrent que ce modèle avec des indicateurs contractuels pour assurer la qualité peut améliorer le niveau de bien-être par rapport aux résultats du modèle d’honoraires pour les services.
THE EVIDENCE FROM THE WARSAW STOCK EXCHANGE

The recent development in quantitative finance is partly due to the availability of intraday data. It has led to development of new concepts and approaches in modeling both returns and volatility. It is also very useful in market reaction research. On the high technology and efficient markets everyone expects the reaction to information to be very fast. Therefore intraday data may allow to asses the impact of information on stock returns. However this type of data are characterized by two special features. First is a periodic pattern in volatility and second the existence of price jumps (Boudt, Croux, Laurent 2008). Following Lee and Mykland (2008) we define jump as a discontinuity in financial time series caused by unexpected event. The class of events is very broad from market-wide crashes or unexpected values in macroeconomic announcements to company-specific news as corporate defaults, earnings announcements etc. The existence of jumps is said to have an impact on financial management (Johannes 2004). Our motivation is to detect jumps in high frequency financial series, namely stock and index prices, and identify information that caused these jumps. Lee and Mykland applied their test to series without periodicity filtering. They found out that jumps arrive mostly at the opening of the session and almost in all cases are associated with news releases. However the intraday data are usually characterized by intraday volatility pattern (Andersen and Bollerslev 1998). Therefore we describe the treatment of periodicity and show how periodicity removal influence the results of jump detection. We choose 5 most liquid stocks quoted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and blue chip index WIG20 from this exchange. The sample period consists of fifteen minute returns during seven months from 2009-09-01 to 2010-03-31. The jumps are detected with Lee-Mykland jump test with 2 approaches: no periodicity filtering and non-parametric periodicity filter. After detecting jumps, we compare the time of jump occurrence in two approaches. Finally we search for real-time financial news and information releases around jump arrival times using Reuters newswire and other sources in order to examine their association with jump arrivals. We present the relationship between jumps and announcements in case of KGHM in details.