Complexity Of Function Research Articles

Grammatical and functional characteristics of preposition-based phrase frames in English argumentative essays by L1 English and Spanish speakers

This study investigates recurrent discontinuous multiword sequences, or phrase frames, of the pattern preposition + the * of in English argumentative essays authored by L1 English and L1 Spanish speakers. This pattern of phrase frames is important as it comprises prepositional phrases which are a conspicuous feature of grammatical complexity in academic writing. The target frames are analyzed through the lens of grammatical complexity and discourse function, while also exploring trends in frequency and accuracy. The principal finding is that both L1 groups often used the target frames to serve as a textual bridge within sentences, with the frames usually fulfilling an adverbial or post modifying function while simultaneously identifying an intangible quality or marking a procedure or process of a following noun phrase. The major difference between the two L1 groups is that the L1 English speakers used the frames for postnominal modification and an intangible framing discourse function at higher rates than the L1 Spanish speakers. This was particularly evident with the frame on the * of. Finally, more errors with the definite article and prepositions were identified among the L1 Spanish group, suggesting that instruction of the target frames could be a worthwhile pedagogical endeavor.

Research advance on the important role of selenoproteinin human health

<p indent=0mm>Selenium (Se) is an essential trace element for animal and human health. Se deficiency and Se excessive intake can lead to severe symptoms and are related to diseases. Se is mainly combined with protein in the form of selenocysteine (Sec) and selenomethionine (Se-Met) in the human body. Generally, proteins formed by incorporating Sec into them are called selenoproteins, while proteins bound in other forms are called Se-containing proteins. Selenoprotein is the main form of Se to exert its biological functions in the human body, and Se deficiency could reduce the content and activity of selenoproteins and disturb the normal physiological function. Researches on the relationship between selenoproteins and human health have received increasing attention, and a comprehensive understanding of the function of selenoproteins is helpful to explain the effects of Se on human health. Although the functions of selenoproteins are not yet fully understood, the critical role of many selenoproteins in human health has been revealed increasingly. So far, 25 kinds of selenoproteins have been found in the human body, and this review focuses on the structure and biological function of glutathione peroxidase (GPX), thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) and iodothyronine deiodinase (ID) families and their relationship with diseases. It shows that selenoproteins such as GPX, TrxR and ID families have biological functions of regulating cell oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum stress, antioxidant defense, immune response and inflammatory response. The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and DNA methylation in the promoter region of selenoprotein are related to the risk of diseases. Selenoproteins play a vital role in the pathogenesis and prevention of diseases such as tumors, cardiovascular diseases, osteoarthritis (OA), Keshan disease (KSD), Kashin-Beck disease (KBD), and corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) through their genetic and epigenetic forms. This research will provide clues and basis for further revealing the role of Se and selenoprotein in human health and screening to prevent disease targets. However, due to the complexity and unknown biological functions of selenoproteins, the mechanism of selenoproteins in resisting diseases and promoting human health is still worthy of further exploration and research.

Exploring the GRAS gene family in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.): characterization, evolutionary relationships, and expression analyses in response to abiotic stresses.

Genome-wide identification reveals 55 PvuGRAS genes belonging to 16 subfamilies and their gene structures and evolutionary relationships were characterized. Expression analyses highlight their prominence in plant growth, development and abiotic stress responses. GRAS proteins comprise a plant-specific transcription factor family involved in multiple growth regulatory pathways and environmental cues including abiotic/biotic stresses. Despite its crucial importance, characterization of this gene family is still elusive in common bean. A systematic genome-wide scan identified 55 PvuGRAS genes unevenly anchored to the 11 common bean chromosomes. Segmental duplication appeared to be the key driving force behind expansion of this gene family that underwent purifying selection during evolution. Computational investigation unraveled their intronless organization and identified similar motif composition within the same subfamily. Phylogenetic analyses clustered the PvuGRAS proteins into 16 phylogenetic clades and established extensive orthologous relationships with Arabidopsis and rice. Analysis of the upstream promoter region uncovered cis-elements responsive to growth, development, and abiotic stresses that may account for their differential expression. The identified SSRs could serve as putative molecular markers facilitating future breeding programs. 37 PvuGRAS transcripts were post-transcriptionally regulated by different miRNA families, miR171 being the major player preferentially targeting members of the HAM subfamily. Global expression profile based on RNA-seq data indicates a clade specific expression pattern in various tissues and developmental stages. Additionally, nine PvuGRAS genes were chosen for further qPCR analyses under drought, salt, and cold stress suggesting their involvement in acclimation to environmental stimuli. Combined, the present results significantly contribute to the current understanding of the complexity and biological function of the PvuGRAS gene family. The resources generated will provide a solid foundation in future endeavors for genetic improvement in common bean.

Syntactic complexity in learner-generated research paper introductions: Rhetorical functions and level of move/step realization

This study explored the relationship between syntactic complexity and rhetorical functions and the relationship between syntactic complexity and level of move/step realization in learner-generated research paper introductions. We created a corpus of 79 introductions written by undergraduate L2 students at intermediate to high-intermediate levels. We annotated the introductions for moves and steps, measured their syntactic complexity at the global, clausal, and phrasal levels, and rated their level of move/step realization across four levels (no, low, intermediate, and high). We conducted one-way MANOVA, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and stepwise multiple linear regression analyses. We found sentences realizing Reviewing items of previous research function to be significantly longer than other steps in Move1 and to contain significantly more clausal and phrasal complexity features. Sentences performing Claimingcentrality function also demonstrated significantly more phrasal complexity features as measured by complex nominals per clause. We also found a higher level of phrasal complexity in introductions with a higher level of move/step realization, which can be attributed to introductions including Step1 and Step3, rather than containing all steps. Our findings imply that there is value in developing explicit instructions on how to use complex structures in performing rhetorical steps in research paper introductions.

Spatial Cognition in Teleost Fish: Strategies and Mechanisms.

Simple SummaryThe study of the neurobiological basis of spatial cognition has been demonstrated to be one of the most exciting, successful, and productive research fields in neuroscience. An enormous number of experimental results on the brain mechanisms of navigation have been obtained over several decades and a number of theories and detailed mechanistic computational models have been developed to account for these data obtained mainly in mammals and birds. Recently, the use of teleost fish species as animal models in neurobiology has exponentially increased, nicely complementing the use of traditional mammalian models in basic and translational neuroscience research. Comparative neurobiological research has shown that teleost fish can use a variety of navigational strategies that closely resemble those described in mammals and birds. Although some of these similarities could indicate evolutionary convergence shaped by common environmental constraints and survival requirements, at least some of these strategies seem to be based on conserved neural substrata likely shared with land vertebrates, suggesting that these strategies and their neurobiological basis could have appeared very early on during vertebrate evolution.Teleost fish have been traditionally considered primitive vertebrates compared to mammals and birds in regard to brain complexity and behavioral functions. However, an increasing amount of evidence suggests that teleosts show advanced cognitive capabilities including spatial navigation skills that parallel those of land vertebrates. Teleost fish rely on a multiplicity of sensory cues and can use a variety of spatial strategies for navigation, ranging from relatively simple body-centered orientation responses to allocentric or “external world-centered” navigation, likely based on map-like relational memory representations of the environment. These distinct spatial strategies are based on separate brain mechanisms. For example, a crucial brain center for egocentric orientation in teleost fish is the optic tectum, which can be considered an essential hub in a wider brain network responsible for the generation of egocentrically referenced actions in space. In contrast, other brain centers, such as the dorsolateral telencephalic pallium of teleost fish, considered homologue to the hippocampal pallium of land vertebrates, seem to be crucial for allocentric navigation based on map-like spatial memory. Such hypothetical relational memory representations endow fish’s spatial behavior with considerable navigational flexibility, allowing them, for example, to perform shortcuts and detours.

Directing Transition of Synthetic Protocell Models via Physicochemical Cues-Triggered Interfacial Dynamic Covalent Chemistry.

As the preliminary synthetic analogs of living cells, protocells with life‐like features serve as a versatile platform to explore the origin of life. Although protocells constructed from multiple components have been developed, the transition of primitive cellular compartments toward structural complexity and advanced function remains a scientific challenge. Herein, a programmable pathway is established to exploit a simple chemistry to construct structural transition of protocell models from emulsion droplets, nanocapsules to molecularly crowded droplets. The transitional process toward distinct cell‐like compartments is driven by interfacial self‐assembly of simple components and regulated by physicochemical cues (e.g., mechanical force, solvent evaporation, acid/base equilibrium) triggered dynamic covalent chemistry. These protocell models are further studied by comparing their compartmentalization behavior, sequestration efficiency, and the ability to enrich biomolecules (e.g., enzyme and substrate) toward catalytic reaction or biological activity within the compartments. The results showcase physiochemical cues‐driven programmable transition of life‐like compartments toward functionalization, and offer a new step toward the design of living soft materials.

Circuit Complexity from Cosmological Islands

Recently, in various theoretical works, path-breaking progress has been made in recovering the well-known page curve of an evaporating black hole with quantum extremal islands, proposed to solve the long-standing black hole information loss problem related to the unitarity issue. Motivated by this concept, in this paper, we study cosmological circuit complexity in the presence (or absence) of quantum extremal islands in negative (or positive) cosmological constant with radiation in the background of Friedmann-Lemai^tre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) space-time, i.e., the presence and absence of islands in anti de Sitter and the de Sitter space-time having SO(2, 3) and SO(1, 4) isometries, respectively. Without using any explicit details of any gravity model, we study the behavior of the circuit complexity function with respect to the dynamical cosmological solution for the scale factors for the above mentioned two situations in FLRW space-time using squeezed state formalism. By studying the cosmological circuit complexity, out-of-time ordered correlators, and entanglement entropy of the modes of the squeezed state, in different parameter space, we conclude the non-universality of these measures. Their remarkably different features in the different parameter space suggests their dependence on the parameters of the model under consideration.

Совместное использование технологий OpenMP и MPI на узлах вычислительного кластера

This work is devoted to the problem of implementing an efficient parallel program that solves the asigned task using the maximum available amount of computing cluster resources in order to obtain the corresponding gain in performance with respect to the sequential version of the algorithm. The main objective of the work was to study the possibilities of joint use of the parallelization technologies OpenMP and MPI, considering the characteristics and features of the problems being solved, to increase the performance of executing parallel algorithms and programs on a computing cluster. This article provides a brief overview of approaches to calculating the sequential programs complexity functions. To determine the parallel programs complexity, an approach based on operational analysis was used. The features of the sequential programs parallelization technologies OpenMP and MPI are described. The main software and hardware factors affecting the execution speed of parallel programs on the nodes of a computing cluster are presented. The main attention in this paper is paid to the study of the impact on performance of computational and exchange operations number ratio in programs. To implement the research, parallel OpenMP and MPI testing programs were developed, in which the total number of operations and the correlation between computational and exchange operations are set. A computing cluster consisting of several nodes was used as a hardware and software platform. Experimental studies have made it possible to confirm the effectiveness of the hybrid model of a parallel program in multi-node systems with heterogeneous memory using OpenMP in shared memory subsystems, and MPI in a distributed memory subsystems

The Complexity of Blood Pressure Fluctuation Mediated the Effects of Hypertension on Walking Speed in Older Adults.

Background: Older adults with hypertension often had diminished walking performance. The underlying mechanism through which hypertension affects walking performance, however, has not been fully understood. We here measured the complexity of the continuous systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure fluctuation, grade of white matter lesions (WMLs), and cognitive function and used structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the interrelationships between hypertension, BP complexity, WMLs, cognitive function, and walking speed in single- and dual-task conditions.Methods: A total of 152 older adults with age > 60 years (90 hypertensive and 62 normotensive participants) completed one MRI scan of brain structure, a finger BP assessment of at least 10 min, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) to assess cognitive function, and 10-meter walking tests in single (i.e., normal walking) and dual tasks (i.e., walking while performing a serial subtraction of three from a random three-digit number). The grade of WMLs was assessed using the total score of Fazekas scale; the complexity of SBP and DBP was measured using multiscale entropy (MSE), and the walking performance was assessed by walking speed in single- and dual-task conditions.Results: As compared to normotensives, hypertensive older adults had significantly slower walking speed, lower complexity of SBP and DBP, greater grade of WMLs, and poorer cognitive function (p < 0.03). Those with lower BP complexity (β > 0.31, p < 0.003), greater WML grade (β < −0.39, p < 0.0002), and/or poorer cognitive function (β < −0.39, p < 0.0001) had slower walking speed in single- and/or dual-task conditions. The SEM model demonstrated significant total effects of hypertension on walking speed, and such effects were mediated by BP complexity only, or BP complexity, WML grade, and cognitive function together.Conclusion: This study demonstrates the cross-sectional association between the complexity of continuous beat-to-beat BP fluctuation, WML grade, cognitive function, and walking speed in hypertensive and normotensive older adults, revealing a potential mechanism that hypertension may affect walking performance in older adults through diminished BP complexity, increased WML grade, and decreased cognitive function, and BP complexity is an important factor for such effects. Future longitudinal studies are warranted to confirm the findings in this study.

Subword complexity of the Fibonacci–Thue–Morse sequence: The proof of Dekking’s conjecture

Recently F. M. Dekking conjectured the form of the subword complexity function for the Fibonacci–Thue–Morse sequence. In this note we prove his conjecture by purely computational means, using the free software Walnut.

Subsystems of transitive subshifts with linear complexity

AbstractWe bound the number of distinct minimal subsystems of a given transitive subshift of linear complexity, continuing work of Ormes and Pavlov [On the complexity function for sequences which are not uniformly recurrent. Dynamical Systems and Random Processes (Contemporary Mathematics, 736). American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 2019, pp. 125--137]. We also bound the number of generic measures such a subshift can support based on its complexity function. Our measure-theoretic bounds generalize those of Boshernitzan [A unique ergodicity of minimal symbolic flows with linear block growth. J. Anal. Math.44(1) (1984), 77–96] and are closely related to those of Cyr and Kra [Counting generic measures for a subshift of linear growth. J. Eur. Math. Soc.21(2) (2019), 355–380].

Micro-catchment water harvesting-based rehabilitation ameliorated soil microbial abundance, diversity and function in a degraded dryland

Degraded drylands have a limited ecosystem functionality and require well-targeted rehabilitation interventions and sustainable land management for improvement. A promising rehabilitation package using mechanized micro-catchment water harvesting, to support the development of out-planted native shrub seedlings, is being introduced in Jordan's Badia. However, the impacts of rehabilitation on the soil microbial communities through the changes in soil physicochemical properties, and microbial potential contribution to soil function and stability are unclear. In the present study, soil microbial properties (abundance, community structure, community composition, diversity, network complexity, and decomposition function) and their relations with selected physicochemical properties (moisture, pH, salinity, and organic matter quantity and quality) were investigated in the micro-catchment water harvesting bunds in comparison with those in untreated interspace areas four years after implementation. At the bunds, fungal and bacterial abundances increased significantly, as did prokaryotic diversity, prokaryotic function to produce decomposing enzymes, and the redundancy of these functions. Furthermore, Burkholderiales (plant growth-promoting bacteria) and Cytophagales (cellulolytic bacteria) increased in the bunds. Enhanced soil moisture, through the rehabilitation, was likely a key for the improvements of the microbiota, including the increases in the abundances of fungi and the specific bacteria (Burkholderiales and Cytophagales), most of the decomposition function, and the functional redundancy. Furthermore, the decrease in salinity due to leaching resultant from the infiltration of collected surface runoff at the bunds likely supported an increase in diversity and parts of the function. The results suggest that the rehabilitation has multiple beneficial impacts on soil microbial communities, which further contribute to long-term ecosystem functionality and stability.

Branched In2O3 Mesocrystal of Ordered Architecture Derived from the Oriented Alignment of a Metal–Organic Framework for Accelerated Hydrogen Evolution over In2O3–ZnIn2S4

It is fascinating yet challenging to assemble anisotropic nanowires into ordered architectures of high complexity and intriguing functions. We exploited a facile strategy involving oriented etching of a metal-organic fragment (MOF) to advance the rational design of highly ordered nanostructures. As a proof of concept, a microscale MIL-68(In) single crystal was etched with a K3[Co(CN)6] solution to give a microtube composed of aligned MIL-68(In) nanorods. Annealing such a MIL-68(In) microtube readily created an unprecedented branched In2O3 mesocrystal by assembly of In2O3 nanorods aligned in order. The derived ordered-In2O3-ZnIn2S4 is more efficient in catalyzing visible-light-driven H2 evolution (8753 μmol h-1 g-1) outperforming the disordered-In2O3-ZnIn2S4 counterpart (2700 μmol h-1 g-1) as well as many other state-of-the-art ZnIn2S4-based photocatalysts. The ordered architecture significantly boosts the short-range electron transfer in an In2O3-ZnIn2S4 heterojunction but has a negligible impact on the long-range electron transfer among In2O3 mesocrystals. The density functional theory (DFT) calculation reveals that the oriented etching is achieved by the selective binding of the [Co(CN)6]3- etchant on the (110) plane of MIL-68(In), which can drag the In atoms out of the framework in order. Our findings could broaden the technical sense toward advanced photocatalyst design and impose scientific impacts on unveiling how ordered photosystems operate.

Intrinsic disorder in protein domains contributes to both organism complexity and clade-specific functions

Interestingly, some protein domains are intrinsically disordered (abbreviated as IDD), and the disorder degree of same domains may differ in different contexts. However, the evolutionary causes and biological significance of these phenomena are unclear. Here, we address these issues by genome-wide analyses of the evolutionary and functional features of IDDs in 1,870 species across the three superkingdoms. As the result, there is a significant positive correlation between the proportion of IDDs and organism complexity with some interesting exceptions. These phenomena may be due to the high disorder of clade-specific domains and the different disorder degrees of the domains shared in different clades. The functions of IDDs are clade-specific and the higher proportion of post-translational modification sites may contribute to their complex functions. Compared with metazoans, fungi have more IDDs with a consecutive disorder region but a low disorder ratio, which reflects their different functional requirements. As for disorder variation, it’s greater for domains among different proteins than those within the same proteins. Some clade-specific ‘no-variation’ or ‘high-variation’ domains are involved in clade-specific functions. In sum, intrinsic domain disorder is related to both the organism complexity and clade-specific functions. These results deepen the understanding of the evolution and function of IDDs.

Automatic analysis of artistic paintings using information-based measures

The artistic community is increasingly relying on automatic computational analysis for authentication and classification of artistic paintings. In this paper, we identify hidden patterns and relationships present in artistic paintings by analysing their complexity, a measure that quantifies the sum of characteristics of an object. Specifically, we apply Normalized Compression (NC) and the Block Decomposition Method (BDM) to a dataset of 4,266 paintings from 91 authors and examine the potential of these information-based measures as descriptors of artistic paintings. Both measures consistently described the equivalent types of paintings, authors, and artistic movements. Moreover, combining the NC with a measure of the roughness of the paintings creates an efficient stylistic descriptor. Furthermore, by quantifying the local information of each painting, we define a fingerprint that describes critical information regarding the artists’ style, their artistic influences, and shared techniques. More fundamentally, this information describes how each author typically composes and distributes the elements across the canvas and, therefore, how their work is perceived. Finally, we demonstrate that regional complexity and two-point height difference correlation function are useful auxiliary features that improve current methodologies in style and author classification of artistic paintings. The whole study is supported by an extensive website (http://panther.web.ua.pt) for fast author characterization and authentication.

On infinite prefix normal words

Prefix normal words are binary words with the property that no factor has more 1s than the prefix of the same length. Finite prefix normal words were introduced in Fici and Lipták (2011) [18]. In this paper, we study infinite prefix normal words and explore their relationship to some known classes of infinite binary words. In particular, we establish a connection between prefix normal words and Sturmian words, between prefix normal words and abelian complexity, and between prefix normality and lexicographic order.1

On the relationship between energy complexity and other boolean function measures

We focus on energy complexity, a Boolean function measure related closely to Boolean circuit design. Given a circuit \(\mathcal {C}\) over the standard basis \(\{\vee _2,\wedge _2,\lnot \}\), the energy complexity of \(\mathcal {C}\), denoted by \({{\,\mathrm{EC}\,}}(\mathcal {C})\), is the maximum number of its activated inner gates over all inputs. The energy complexity of a Boolean function f, denoted by \({{\,\mathrm{EC}\,}}(f)\), is the minimum of \({{\,\mathrm{EC}\,}}(\mathcal {C})\) over all circuits \(\mathcal {C}\) computing f. Recently, K. Dinesh et al. (International computing and combinatorics conference, Springer, Berlin, 738–750, 2018) gave \({{\,\mathrm{EC}\,}}(f)\) an upper bound by the decision tree complexity, \({{\,\mathrm{EC}\,}}(f)=O({{\,\mathrm{D}\,}}(f)^3)\). On the input size n, They also showed that \({{\,\mathrm{EC}\,}}(f)\) is at most \(3n-1\). For the lower bound side, they showed that \({{\,\mathrm{EC}\,}}(f)\ge \frac{1}{3}{{\,\mathrm{psens}\,}}(f)\), where \({{\,\mathrm{psens}\,}}(f)\) is called positive sensitivity. A remained open problem is whether the energy complexity of a Boolean function has a polynomial relationship with its decision tree complexity.Our results for energy complexity can be listed below. For the lower bound, we prove the equation that \({{\,\mathrm{EC}\,}}(f)=\varOmega (\sqrt{{{\,\mathrm{D}\,}}(f)})\), which answers the above open problem. For upper bounds, \({{\,\mathrm{EC}\,}}(f)\le \min \{\frac{1}{2}{{\,\mathrm{D}\,}}(f)^2+O({{\,\mathrm{D}\,}}(f)),n+2{{\,\mathrm{D}\,}}(f)-2\}\) holds. For non-degenerated functions, we also provide another lower bound \({{\,\mathrm{EC}\,}}(f)=\varOmega (\log {n})\) where n is the input size. We also discuss the energy complexity of two specific function classes, \(\mathtt {OR}\) functions and \(\mathtt {ADDRESS}\) functions, which implies the tightness of our two lower bounds respectively. In addition, the former one answers another open question in Dinesh et al. (International computing and combinatorics conference, Springer, Berlin, 738–750, 2018) asking for non-trivial lower bound for energy complexity of \(\mathtt {OR}\) functions.

Classification of transitive group actions

&lt;p style='text-indent:20px;'&gt;We investigate systematically several topological transitivity and mixing concepts for group actions via weak disjointness, return time sets and topological complexity functions.&lt;/p&gt;

The number of ergodic measures for transitive subshifts under the regular bispecial condition

AbstractIf $\mathcal {A}$ is a finite set (alphabet), the shift dynamical system consists of the space $\mathcal {A}^{\mathbb {N}}$ of sequences with entries in $\mathcal {A}$ , along with the left shift operator S. Closed S-invariant subsets are called subshifts and arise naturally as encodings of other systems. In this paper, we study the number of ergodic measures for transitive subshifts under a condition (‘regular bispecial condition’) on the possible extensions of words in the associated language. Our main result shows that under this condition, the subshift can support at most $({K+1})/{2}$ ergodic measures, where K is the limiting value of $p(n+1)-p(n)$ , and p is the complexity function of the language. As a consequence, we answer a question of Boshernitzan from 1984, providing a combinatorial proof for the bound on the number of ergodic measures for interval exchange transformations.

Occupational Complexity and Late-Life Global Cognition: The SONIC Study

Studies have reported that work exposure to cognitively demanding environments predicted the level of late-life cognitive abilities. To date, whether or not such a relationship between work complexity and cognitive function is maintained in very old adults remains unknown. In the present study, we examined how the associations between lifetime work’s complexity and global cognition vary by age groups (70s, 80s, and 90s). To this end, we used data from 2754 Japanese community-dwelling participants in the SONIC Project. Specifically, we tested multiple group path models comparing the models based on differences in age and gender. The effects of work complexities on global cognition were found for male septuagenarians and octogenarians, having controlled for the variables related to education. The relationships between them were marginally significant for male nonagenarians. Based on the analysis, we discuss the maintenance of cognitive reserve and implications for cognitive and physical health in very old ages.