Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The forkhead transcription factor FOXL2 is expressed in somatic cells of the human ovary prior to follicle formation

Interactions between germ cells and surrounding somatic cells are central to ovarian development as well as later function. Disruption of these interactions arising from abnormalities in either cell type can lead to premature ovarian failure (POF). The forkhead transcription factor FOXL2 is a candidate POF factor, and mutations in the FOXL2 gene are associated with syndromic and non-syndromic ovarian failure. Foxl2-deficient mice display major defects in primordial follicle activation with consequent follicle loss, and earlier roles in gonadal development and sex determination have also been suggested. However, despite its importance no data presently exist on its expression in the developing human ovary. Expression of FOXL2 mRNA was demonstrated in the human fetal ovary between 8 and 19 weeks gestation, thus from soon after sex determination to primordial follicle development. Expression in the ovary was higher after 14 weeks than at earlier gestation weeks and was very low in the fetal testis at all ages examined. Immunolocalization revealed FOXL2 expression to be confined to somatic cells, both adjacent to germ cells and those located in the developing ovarian stroma. These cells are the site of action of oocyte-derived activin signalling, but in vitro treatment of human fetal ovaries with activin failed to reveal any regulation of FOXL2 transcription by this pathway. In summary, the expression of FOXL2 in somatic cells of the developing human ovary before and during follicle formation supports a conserved and continuing role for this factor in somatic/germ cell interactions from the earliest stages of human ovarian development.
User preferences in the classification of electronic bookmarks: Implications for a shared system

Using the financial industry as a context, the following study seeks to address the issue of the classification of electronic bookmarks in a multi-user system by investigating what factors influence how individuals develop categories for bookmarks and how they choose to classify bookmarks within those organizational categories. An experiment was conducted in which a sample of 15 participants was asked to bookmark and to categorize 60 web sites within Internet Browser folders of their own creation. Based on the data collected during this first component of the study, individual, customized questionnaires were composed for each participant. Whereas some of the questions within these surveys focused on particular classificatory decisions regarding specific bookmarks, others looked at how the participant defined, utilized, and structured the category folders that comprised his or her classification system. The results presented in this paper focus on issues investigated in Kwasnik's (Journal of Documentation, 1991, 47, 389-398) study of the factors that inform how individuals organize their personal, paper-based documents in office environments. Whereas classificatory attributes culled from questionnaire responses nominally resembled those identified by Kwasnik, it was found that a number of these factors assumed distinctive definitions in the electronic environment. The present study suggests that the application of individual instances of classificatory attributes and the distinction between Content and Context Attributes emphasized by Kwasnik play a minimal role in the development of a multi-user classification system for bookmarks.
TRF2 dysfunction elicits DNA damage responses associated with senescence in proliferating neural cells and differentiation of neurons

Telomeres are specialized structures at the ends of chromosomes that consist of tandem repeats of the DNA sequence TTAGGG and several proteins that protect the DNA and regulate the plasticity of the telomeres. The telomere‐associated protein TRF2 (telomeric repeat binding factor 2) is critical for the control of telomere structure and function; TRF2 dysfunction results in the exposure of the telomere ends and activation of ATM (ataxia telangiectasin mutated)‐mediated DNA damage response. Recent findings suggest that telomere attrition can cause senescence or apoptosis of mitotic cells, but the function of telomeres in differentiated neurons is unknown. Here, we examined the impact of telomere dysfunction via TRF2 inhibition in neurons (primary embryonic hippocampal neurons) and mitotic neural cells (astrocytes and neuroblastoma cells). We demonstrate that telomere dysfunction induced by adenovirus‐mediated expression of dominant‐negative TRF2 (DN‐TRF2) triggers a DNA damage response involving the formation of nuclear foci containing phosphorylated histone H2AX and activated ATM in each cell type. In mitotic neural cells DN‐TRF2 induced activation of both p53 and p21 and senescence (as indicated by an up‐regulation of β‐galactosidase). In contrast, in neurons DN‐TRF2 increased p21, but neither p53 nor β‐galactosidase was induced. In addition, TRF2 inhibition enhanced the morphological, molecular and biophysical differentiation of hippocampal neurons. These findings demonstrate divergent molecular and physiological responses to telomere dysfunction in mitotic neural cells and neurons, indicate a role for TRF2 in regulating neuronal differentiation, and suggest a potential therapeutic application of inhibition of TRF2 function in the treatment of neural tumors.
Serum BAFF strongly correlates with PsA activity in male patients only--is there a role for sex hormones?

OBJECTIVES To determine the relationship between serum levels of B cell activating factor belonging to the TNF family (BAFF) and disease activity (DAS28) in psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients. METHODS Twenty-two male and 31 female psoriasis patients fulfilling the CASPAR criteria for PsA were recruited for the study. Disease activity was recorded using the disease activity score for 28 joints (DAS28). Whole blood and serum samples were analysed for serum BAFF, estradiol, and testosterone levels. RESULTS Serum BAFF levels were positively correlated with DAS28 only in male PsA patients (r=0.669, p<0.001). In male but not female patients, serum testosterone was negatively correlated with DAS28 (r=-0.632, p=0.002), and serum BAFF (r=-0.520, p=0.018), respectively. The serum BAFF/ serum testosterone (B/T) ratio showed a strong correlation with DAS28 in male patients (r=0.743, p<0.0001) and, again, no correlation was found in female participants (r=0.019, p=0.93). A linear regression analysis showed that the B/T is a good predictor of DAS28 (r2=0.586, p<0.001). On the other hand, estradiol levels did neither correlate with PsA activity in male nor female patients in our study population. CONCLUSIONS Even though a role for B cells in the pathogenesis of PsA has not been established, BAFF levels correlate with disease activity in male PsA patients. Furthermore, serum testosterone in male patients negatively correlates with disease activity and BAFF, respectively. The serum BAFF/serum testosterone ratio might be used as predictor of disease activity in male PsA patients.
Interaction in Linear versus Logistic Models: A Substantive Illustration Using the Relationship between Motivation, Ability, and Performance

A binary performance measure (high school graduation) is examined as a function of motivation (educational goal), ability (scores in an intelligence test), and their interaction. The interaction was positive when a logistic model was used and negative when a linear probability model was used. The reason for the difference in the results of the two models is examined, and the conditions under which this difference occurs are discussed.
Fast probabilistic algorithms for hamiltonian circuits and matchings

The main purpose of this paper is to give techniques for analysing the probabilistic performance of certain kinds of algorithms, and hence to suggest some fast algorithms with provably desirable probabilistic behaviour. The particular problems we consider are: finding Hamiltonian circuits in directed graphs (DHC), finding Hamiltonian circuits in undirected graphs (UHC), and finding perfect matchings in undirected graphs (PM). We show that for each problem there is an algorithm that is extremely fast (0(n(log n)2) for DHC and UHC, and 0(nlog n) for PM), and which with probability tending to one finds a solution in randomly chosen graphs of sufficient density. These results contrast with the known NP-completeness of the first two problems [2,12] and the best worst-case upper bound known of 0(n2.5) for the last [9].
Structural Modeling in Marketing: Review and Assessment

The recent marketing literature reflects a growing interest in structural models, stemming from (1) the desire to test a variety of behavioral theories with market data, and (2) recent developments that facilitate estimation of and inference for these models. Whether one should always go through the effort of developing such tightly parameterized models with the associated computational burden of estimating them and whether it pays off to make strict behavioral assumptions in terms of better decisions remain open questions. To shed some light on these issues, we provide examples of structural approaches to consumer choice and demand as well as examples where the goal is to study the nature of competition in the marketplace. From that review comes our discussion of issues in the development and application of structural models, including their estimation, testing, and validation, their applicability in the practice of marketing, and their usefulness for normative as well as descriptive purposes.
Comparative Analysis of Prosodic Features and Linear Predictive Coefficients for Speaker Recognition Using Machine Learning Technique

Speaker recognition is a biometric identification method that uses different features of individual's voice for automatically identifying a speaker among a population. Two different features set for text dependent speaker recognition. A comparison is performed between Linear Predictive Coefficients (LPC) and Prosodic Features (F0, F1, F2, and F3) along with Radial Basis Function Network (RBFN) for recognizing a speaker population of 100 speakers. The results conclude that prosodic features performed better than LPC in terms of accuracy, precision and recall.
Life Cycle of a Minimal ProtocellA Dissipative Particle Dynamics Study

Cross-reactions and other systematic difficulties generated by the coupling of functional chemical subsystems pose the largest challenge for assembling a viable protocell in the laboratory. Our current work seeks to identify and clarify such key issues as we represent and analyze in simulation a full implementation of a minimal protocell. Using a 3D dissipative particle dynamics simulation method, we are able to address the coupled diffusion, self-assembly, and chemical reaction processes required to model a full life cycle of a protocell composed of coupled genetic, metabolic, and container subsystems. Utilizing this minimal structural and functional representation of the constituent molecules, their interactions, and their reactions, we identify and explore the nature of the many linked processes for the full protocellular system. Obviously the simplicity of this simulation method combined with the inherent system complexity prevents us from expecting quantitative simulation predictions from these investigations. However, we report important findings on systemic processes, some previously predicted and some newly discovered, as we couple the protocellular self-assembly processes and chemical reactions.
Sisal Fiber/Glass Fiber Hybrid Composites: The Impact and Compressive Properties

The variations of impact strength and compressive strength of unsaturated polyester based sisal/glass hybrid composites with fiber loading have been studied. The impact strength of these hybrid composites has been found to be higher than that of the matrix, whereas a marginal decrease was observed in the compressive strength of the hybrid composites over that of the matrix. The effects of NaOH treatment and trimethoxy silane (coupling agent) treatment on the impact and compressive properties of these sisal/glass hybrid composites have also been studied. No significant improvement in impact strength of the sisal/glass hybrid composites has been observed by these treatments, whereas a marginal increase in compressive strength of these hybrid composites has been observed.
Reconstruction of 3-D head geometry from digitized point sets: an evaluation study

In this paper, we evaluate different methods to estimate patient-specific scalp, skull, and brain surfaces from a set of digitized points from the target's scalp surface. The reconstruction problem is treated as a registration problem: An a priori surface model, consisting of the scalp, skull, and brain surfaces, is registered to the digitized surface points. The surface model is generated from segmented magnetic resonance (MR) volume images. We study both affine and free-form deformation (FFD) registration, the use of average models, the averaging of individual registration results, a model selection procedure, and statistical deformation models. The registration algorithms are mainly previously published, and the objective of this paper is to evaluate these methods in this particular application with sparse data. The main interest of this paper is to generate geometric head models for biomedical applications, such as electroencephalography and magnetoencephalographic. However, the methods can also be applied to other anatomical regions and to other application areas. The methods were validated using 15 MR volume images, from which the scalp, skull, and brain were manually segmented. The best results were achieved by averaging the results of the FFD registrations of the database: the mean distance from the manually segmented target surface to a deformed a priori model surface for the studied anatomical objects was 1.68-2.08 mm, depending on the point set used. The results support the use of the evaluated methods for the reconstruction of geometric models in applications with sparse data.
The influence of 5-fluorouracil on activity of thymidine phosphorylase in gastric adenocarcinoma and normal adjacent tissue.

UNLABELLED The aim of the present study was to evaluate the change of thymidine phosphorylase (TP) activity in gastric adenocarcinoma and adjacent tissue upon the intraarterial administration of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). Matherials and methods: The specimens of tumor and adjacent tissue were obtained by surgical operation on 36 patients (20 men and 16 women aged from 38 to 82 years) with gastric adenocarcinoma (stages II-IV). 5-FU was administered in the bolus dose to the gastroepiploic artery 2-60 min before the tumor resection. The concentration of 5-FU and activity of TP in both tissues were determined by high performance liquid chromatography method. RESULTS The concentration of 5-FU was decreased in a time-dependent manner in both tissues, though the interpatient variability of this value was much less in tumor tissue. The activity of TP was decreased with the course of the time after 5-FU administration in tumor and normal adjacent tissue. There were statistically significant differences in the TP activity in both tissues between 2-20 min and 40-60 min after 5-FU injection (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION 5-FU administration results in the decrease of TP activity in tumor and normal adjacent tissues that might have importance for chemotherapy with fluoropyrimidines.
Gay men who engage in substance use and sexual risk behaviour: a dual-risk group with unique characteristics

‘Recreational’ substances used among men having sex with men, and their association with risky unprotected anal intercourse (RUAI) were examined – for the first time in Israel – in an internet-based questionnaire assessing knowledge, practices and motivation. Between March and May 2005, 2873 participants completed the entire questionnaire. Of the total, 669 (23%) reported RUAI during the last six months, and 1319 (46%) used substances during sex. Use of substance was significantly higher among those performing RUAI than those who did not (31.5% versus 26.4%, P = 0.03). Involvement in both substance use and RUAI was reported by 366 participants (13%). HIV rates were higher in this dual-risk group (P < 0.01), and individuals reported more partners in the last six months than those not part of this dual risk (11.6 versus 8.2, P = 0.02). In multivariate analyses, Tel-Aviv residency, lower education, performing receptive RUAI, misperception of HIV transmission and limited negotiation skills were positively associated with this dual-risk behaviour.
Trauma, Attempted Suicide, and Morning Cortisol in a Community Sample of Adolescents

Individuals exposed to trauma or who have attempted suicide may show abnormal cortisol profiles; those exposed to significant trauma show reduced, while those who attempt suicide show increased cortisol output, although the evidence is inconsistent. This study explores the associations between morning cortisol, trauma, and suicide attempts or ideation among young people. In a community-based sample of 501 15-year-olds, using data from a DSM-IV-compatible interview on suicidal-behavior/ideation, trauma, and morning cortisol, we found no association between these factors and morning cortisol. A significant gender interaction was found for those threatened with a weapon—men showing a negative and women a positive association, suggesting that any cortisol/trauma association may be partially explained by coexisting behavioral problems and gender.
Quantifying the time course of visual object processing using ERPs : it ’ s time to up the game

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Interaction of Heart Rate and Respiration in Newborn Babies

ABSTRACT: Variability of heart rate (HRV) and transthoracic electric impedance respirogram (TEZ) were examined by spectral analysis in three groups of neonates: healthy term babies (22), healthy preterm babies (21), and preterm babies with respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) (11). Heart rate, TEZ, Ptco2, and Ptcco2 were monitored during quiet sleep on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th day of postnatal life. Autospectra for trend-corrected segments of heart rate and TEZ as well as their cross-spectra and coherence spectra were computed. The peak of HRV spectral density was in < 0.2 Hz [low frequency (LF)] area (< 12 cycles/min) in all the neonates. Intergroup comparisons of average band-integrated spectra revealed that the LF spectral density of HRV was greater in the term babies than in the preterm babies on day 3. In the babies with RDS, both LF and high-frequency (HF, > 0.2 Hz) were abnormally low throughout the study. In the term infants, the TEZ amplitude spectrum was flat on day 1. On later days, a peak corresponding to the average respiratory rate emerged. In the healthy preterm babies, there was a LF peak in TEZ autospectrum on all days. In the babies with RDS, the peak of ventilator frequency was initially present; finally, the respiratory activity accumulated in the LF area. In the cross-spectra of term babies, there was a LF peak on all days. On day 5, an additional HF peak appeared, representing respiratory sinus arrhythmia. In the healthy preterm babies, only a LF peak was present. In babies with RDS, there were three peaks in the cross-spectra: one in the LF area, another corresponding to the ventilator frequency, and a third one representing the first harmonic of the ventilator frequency. With increasing age, the ventilator-induced peaks disappeared and only LF activity remained. No correlation was found between the spectral patterns of HRV and cross-spectra and the values of PtcO2 and Ptcco2. The spectral patterns of HRV and TEZ indicate that in newborn infants most of the activity is generated by LF mechanisms. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia is detected in term infants when regular breathing becomes organized. In RDS, respiratory sinus arrhythmia HRV is induced by ventilator. In both groups of preterm babies, the LF regulation of HRV seems to be more firmly connected with regulation and mechanics of respiration.
Novel role of stathmin in microtubule‐dependent control of endothelial permeability

Microtubule (MT) dynamics in vascular endothelium are modulated by vasoactive mediators and are critically involved in the control of endothelial cell (EC) permeability via Rho GTPase‐dependent crosstalk with the actin cytoskeleton. However, the role of regulators in MT stability in these mechanisms remains unclear. This study investigated the involvement of the MT‐associated protein stathmin in the mediation of agonist‐induced permeability in EC cultures and vascular leak in vivo. Thrombin treatment of human pulmonary ECs induced rapid dephosphorylation and activation of stathmin. Inhibition of stathmin activity by small interfering RNA‐based knockdown or cAMP‐mediated phosphorylation abrogated thrombin‐induced F‐actin remodeling and Rho‐dependent EC hyperpermeability, while expression of a phosphorylation‐deficient stathmin mutant exacerbated thrombininduced EC barrier disruption. Stathmin suppression preserved the MT network against thrombin‐induced MT disassembly and release of Rho‐specific guanine nucleotide exchange factor, GEF‐H1. The protective effects of stathmin knockdown were observed in vivo in the mouse 2‐hit model of ventilator‐induced lung injury and were linked to MT stabilization and down‐regulation of Rho signaling in the lung. These results demonstrate the mechanism of stathmin‐dependent control of MT dynamics, Rho signaling, and permeability and suggest novel potential pharmacological interventions in the prevention of increased vascular leak via modulation of stathmin activity. —Tian, X. , Tian, Y. , Sarich, N. , Wu, T. , Birukova, A. A. Novel role of stathmin in microtubule‐dependent control of endothelial permeability. FASEB J. 26, 3862–3874 (2012). www.fasebj. org
A high performance CABAC encoder

One key technique for improving the coding efficiency of H.264 video standard is the entropy coder, context-adaptive binary arithmetic coder (CABAC). However the complexity of the encoding process of CABAC is far higher than the table driven entropy encoding schemes such as the Huffman coding. CABAC is also bit serial and its multi-bit parallelization is extremely difficult. For a high definition video encoder, multi-giga hertz RISC processors will be needed to implement the CABAC encoder. In this paper, the authors provided efficient solutions for the arithmetic coder and the renormalizer. An FPGA implementation of the proposed scheme capable of 54 Mbps encoding rate and test results are presented. A 0.18 /spl mu/m ASIC synthesis and simulation shows 87 Mbps encoding rate utilizing an area of 0.42 mm/sup 2/.