Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pericentromeric Regions Are Refractory To Prompt Repair after Replication Stress-Induced Breakage in HPV16 E6E7-Expressing Epithelial Cells

Chromosomal instability is the major form of genomic instability in cancer cells. Amongst various forms of chromosomal instability, pericentromeric or centromeric instability remains particularly poorly understood. In the present study, we found that pericentromeric instability, evidenced by dynamic formation of pericentromeric or centromeric rearrangements, breaks, deletions or iso-chromosomes, was a general phenomenon in human cells immortalized by expression of human papillomavirus type 16 E6 and E7 (HPV16 E6E7). In particular, for the first time, we surprisingly found a dramatic increase in the proportion of pericentromeric chromosomal aberrations relative to total aberrations in HPV16 E6E7-expressing cells 72 h after release from aphidicolin (APH)-induced replication stress, with pericentromeric chromosomal aberrations becoming the predominant type of structural aberrations (∼70% of total aberrations). In contrast, pericentromeric aberrations accounted for only about 20% of total aberrations in cells at the end of APH treatment. This increase in relative proportion of pericentromeric aberrations after release from APH treatment revealed that pericentromeric breaks induced by replication stress are refractory to prompt repair in HPV16 E6E7-expressing epithelial cells. Telomerase-immortalized epithelial cells without HPV16 E6E7 expression did not exhibit such preferential pericentromeric instability after release from APH treatment. Cancer development is often associated with replication stress. Since HPV16 E6 and E7 inactivate p53 and Rb, and p53 and Rb pathway defects are common in cancer, our finding that pericentromeric regions are refractory to prompt repair after replication stress-induced breakage in HPV16 E6E7-expressing cells may shed light on mechanism of general pericentromeric instability in cancer.
Survey of Endodontic Practice amongst Iranian Dentists Participating Restorative Dentistry Congress in Shiraz, November 2007

INTRODUCTION: General dental practitioners provide the majority of treatment in Iran. The aim of this study was to gather information on the methods, materials and attitudes employed in root canal treatment by dentists participated in 7th Congress of Iranian Academy of Restorative Dentistry in Shiraz /2007 in order to evaluate the quality of current practice. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire for this cross-sectional study was designed with the purpose of evaluating the routine endodontic treatment performed by Iranian dentists. The questionnaire made up of 24 questions with multiple-choice answers. Covering subjects are demographic and professional activity, root-canal preparation and instrumentation, choice of irrigants and disinfectants, and choice of obturation techniques. RESULTS: A total of 247 questionnaires (49.4%) were returned. Ninety-one percent of the respondents were general dental practitioners. The results indicate that there are discrepancies between daily practice and academic teaching, especially regarding the use of rubber dam (only 0.9 % report using it as a standard procedure). Most of practitioners used manual instruments manipulated with a filing technique and few used rotary for canal preparation. The majority of the respondents prepared root canals 0.5-1 mm short of the radiographic apex. The first-choice root-canal irrigant was normal saline (55%), followed by sodium hypochlorite. Approximately, 68% used intracanal medications. The most popular obturation technique was cold lateral condensation (90%) with zinc-oxide eugenol as sealer. Most practitioners performed treatment in two visits for teeth with two or more canals. Eighty-four percent of the dentists used radiograph for determining the working length, and only 2.7% used Apex-locator. CONCLUSION: The survey mentions the importance of continuing dental education for practitioners to update their knowledge.
Functional Exercise and Physical Fitness Post Stroke: The Importance of Exercise Maintenance for Motor Control and Physical Fitness after Stroke

It is argued that all stroke patients, indifferent of disability, have the same possibility to improve with training. The aim of the study was to follow and register functional improvements in two groups with different functional capacities at baseline for a period of 36 months. Stroke patients were recruited and divided into groups related to their functional status at baseline. During the acute rehabilitation, both groups received functional task-oriented training, followed by regular self- or therapeutic driven training the first year after stroke and varied exercise patterns the following 24 months. The participants were tested on admission, and at three, six, twelve, and thirty-six months after the onset of stroke. Both groups improved functional activity up to six months which then stabilized up to twelve months to decline somewhat at thirty-six months after stroke. Change scores indicate a greater potential for rehabilitation in the MAS ≤35 in relation to group MAS >35 although the functional capacity was higher in the latter. This indicates the importance of maintaining exercise and training for all persons after stroke.
Estimates for functions of the Laplacian on manifolds with bounded geometry

In this paper we consider a complete connected noncompact Riemannian manifold M with Ricci curvature bounded from below and positive injectivity radius. Denote by L the Laplace-Beltrami operator on M. We assume that the kernel associated to the heat semigroup generated by L satisfies a mild decay condition at infinity. We prove that if m is a bounded holomorphic function in a suitable strip of the complex plane, and satisfies Mihlin-Hormander type conditions of appropriate order at infinity, then the operator m(L) extends to an operator of weak type 1. This partially extends a celebrated result of J. Cheeger, M. Gromov and M. Taylor, who proved similar results under much stronger curvature assumptions on M, but without any assumption on the decay of the heat kernel.
Gasoline Price Cycle Drivers: An Australian Case Study

In many retail gasoline markets, prices follow a saw-toothed cycle first posited by Edgeworth (1925) and formalised by Maskin & Tirole (1988). A growing literature explores driving factors behind such cycles, most particularly in Canada and the US. This paper explores price cycles in a retail gasoline market in Australia with a unique regulatory environment that provides a census of data. We make use of a threshold regression model, and pay particular attention to local market effects and market structure. Both are novel in the study of retail petroleum prices.
Hitting SKEW for SIX

In this study, we propose “SIX” as a new forward-looking index of negative market skew derived from state-preference pricing. Specifically, SIX is a forecast of the ratio of lower to upper partial moment volatility over a 30-day horizon, for SPX market returns. Using SPX options data from 1996 to 2013, we conduct a comparison between SIX and the CBOE SKEW index. First, we document that the daily change in VIX and SIX (SKEW) are negatively (positively) related. Second, we show that the daily change of SIX (SKEW) adds (does not add) significant explanatory power for predicting the one-day ahead return. Third, though biased, SIX produces an efficient forecast of future physical skewness. In contrast, there is no statistically significant relationship between SKEW and physical skewness. Collectively, our results suggest that as an indicator of institutional anxiety, both theoretically and in practice, SIX (SKEW) is a more than useful (questionable) complement to VIX.
Cognitive profiles of vascular and neurodegenerative MCI

The objective of the thesis was to investigate the cognitive profiles of different types of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and follow their course over time. Would it be possible to differentiate between “benign” and “malign” forms of MCI, and identify different dementia disorders in their prodromal stages by means of cognitive profiles? In study I consecutive MCI subjects (N=112) were assessed with a neuropsyhological test battery of 21 tests. When compared to healthy controls (N=35) MCI subjects had impairments in all cognitive domains (speed/attention, memory and learning, visuospatial functions, language and executive functions), which contradicted the prevailing view of MCI typically being memory impairment, ”amnestic MCI”. In study II the subjects were grouped by cerebrovascular disease. Subjects with significant vascular disease (N=60) performed overall worse on the neuropsychological test battery than those without vascular disease (N=60). The most clear-cut differences were seen on speed/attention and executive tests, and the conclusion was that there were similarities in the cognitive profiles of MCI with vascular disease and vascular dementia. In study III MCI subjects without vascular disease were grouped by concentrations of the Alzheimer-typical biomarkers totaltau (T-tau) and beta-amyloid (As). Subjects with Alzheimer-typical concentrations of one or the other or both biomakers in cerebrospinal fluid (N=73) performed worse on episodic memory and speed/attention tests than those with normal concentrations (N=73). When subjects were grouped into those with only high Ttau, only low As and both high T-tau and low As, those with both high T-tau and low As tended to perform slightly worse, while the other two groups performed quite similarly. In study IV 175 subjects were followed up after two years. Fortyfour converted to dementia, all with impairment in several cognitive domains at baseline, and all but two had either vascular disease or Alzheimer-typical biomarkers. Single domain MCI – regardless of vascular disease and biomarkers – had a benign prognosis over two years. The combination of multiple domain amnestic MCI and vascular disease was the best predictor of mixed and vascular dementia, while multiple domain amnestic MCI and biomarkers was the strongest predictor of Alzheimer’s disease. MCI is a heterogeneous condition – the original purely amnestic MCI was very rare – w ith several aetiologies. The combination of cognitive profiles and aetiologies has the potential of making a crucial contribution in diagnosing dementia disorders at their earliest manifestations. ISBN 978-91-628-7522-0 Goteborg, 2008 Cognitive profiles of vascular and neurodegenerative MCI Akademisk avhandling Som for avlaggande av medicine doktorsexamen vid Sahlgrenska akademin vid Goteborgs universitet kommer att offentligen forsvaras i V-aulan, Psykiatriska kliniken, Sahgrenska universitetssjukhuset, Molndal fredagen den 23 maj 2008, kl. 9.00
Association of CYP1B1 Polymorphisms with Breast Cancer: A Case-Control Study in the Han Population in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, P. R. China

Studies investigating possible associations between cytochrome P4501B1 (CYP1B1) polymorphisms and breast cancer risk have been inconsistent. We set out to ascertain whether there might be an association between polymorphisms in exon 2 (codon 119, G→T) and exon 3 (codon 432, G→C) of CYP1B1 and breast cancer in a Chinese Han population in the rural region of Ningxia. Using an allele-specific polymerase chain reaction method and direct DNA sequencing, the presence or absence of the two CYP1B1 polymorphisms was investigated. Genotype and allele frequencies were analyzed in breast cancer cases (n = 152) and healthy age-matched controls (n = 156). The odds ratio (OR) of 119G→T or 432G→C in breast cancer cases and controls was 3.3 (95% CI: 1.28 to 8.28) and 2.8 (95% CI: 1.04 to 7.51), respectively. In addition, the OR for people with both polymorphisms (119T and 432C) was 4.69 (95% CI: 1.97 to 11.19). Our results suggest that certain polymorphisms in the CYP1B1 gene might increase risk for breast cancer among Han Chinese, perhaps because they influence the efficiency of CYP1B1 bio-transformation of oestrogens or pro-carcinogens into DNA-reactive electrophiles that may act as cancer-initiating agents.
Hedge Funds and Market Anomalies

This paper investigates whether hedge funds arbitrage market anomalies. A seven-factor model was utilized including traditional Fama and French (1993) and Carhart (1997) factors as well as other factors associated with the anomalies of earnings momentum, equity financing, and asset growth rates. The average hedge fund employs a strategy consistent with the asset growth rate anomaly factor and opposite that of the equity financing factor. On a strategy specific basis, it was found that many sectors of hedge funds successfully arbitrage the asset growth anomaly and a few successfully arbitrage the earnings momentum anomaly. Successful use of the equity financing anomaly was not found. Seven-factor model alphas tend to be positive and significant, indicating funds generate substantial returns unrelated to the seven factors.
Risk Aversion and Portfolio Selection in a Continuous-Time Model

The comparative statics of the optimal portfolios across individuals is carried out for the Black-Scholes market model. It turns out that the indirect utility functions inherit the order of risk aversion (in the Arrow-Pratt sense) from the von Neumann-Morgenstern utility functions, and therefore, a more risk-averse agent would invest less wealth (in absolute value) in the risky asset.
Dysfunctional Activation and Brain Network Profiles in Youth with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Focus on the Dorsal Anterior Cingulate during Working Memory

Brain network dysfunction is emerging as a central biomarker of interest in psychiatry, in large part, because psychiatric conditions are increasingly seen as disconnection syndromes. Understanding dysfunctional brain network profiles in task-active states provides important information on network engagement in an experimental context. This in turn may be predictive of many of the cognitive and behavioral deficits associated with complex behavioral phenotypes. Here we investigated brain network profiles in youth with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), contrasting them with a group of age-comparable controls. Network interactions were assessed during simple working memory: in particular, we focused on the modulation by the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) of cortical, striatal, and thalamic regions. The focus on the dACC was motivated by its hypothesized role in the pathophysiology of OCD. However, its task-active network signatures have not been investigated before. Network interactions were modeled using psychophysiological interaction, a simple directional model of seed to target brain interactions. Our results indicate that OCD is characterized by significantly increased dACC modulation of cortical, striatal, and thalamic targets during working memory, and that this aberrant increase in OCD patients is maintained regardless of working memory demand. The results constitute compelling evidence of dysfunctional brain network interactions in OCD and suggest that these interactions may be related to a combination of network inefficiencies and dACC hyper-activity that has been associated with the phenotype.
Array independent MIMO channel models with analytical characteristics

The conventional analytical channel models for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless radio channels are array dependent. In this paper, we present several array independent MIMO channel models that inherit the essence of analytical models. The key idea is to decompose the physical scattering channel into two parts using the manifold decomposition technique: one is the wavefield independent sampling matrices depending on the antenna arrays only; the other is the array independent physical channel that can be individually modeled in an analytical manner. Based on the framework, we firstly extend the conventional virtual channel representation (VCR), which is restricted to uniform linear arrays (ULAs) so far, to a general version applicable to arbitrary array configurations. Then, we present two array independent stochastic MIMO channel models based on the proposed new VCR as well as the Weichselberger model. These two models are good at angular power spectrum (APS) estimation and capacity prediction, respectively. Finally, the impact of array characteristics on channel capacity is separately investigated by studying the condition number of the array steering matrix at fixed angles, and the results agree well with existing conclusions. Numerical results are presented for model validation and comparison.
Why dependent types matter

Language designers have in recent years proposed a wealth of richer type systems for programming which seek to extend the range of statically enforced guarantees on data and code. Most such proposals have been evolutionary extensions of ML or Haskell, offering programmers a balanced compromise between expressive strength and existing well-understood technology. Typically they revolve around type- or kind-indexed types such as GADTs, supported by limited equality reasoning at the type-checking level, thus separating the dynamic behaviour of programs from the (simpler) static behaviour of indexing information occurring in their types.I want to argue in this talk for a more radical departure from such practice by examining full spectrum type dependency, lifting such restrictions on the data upon which types may depend. Conor McBride and I designed the language EPIGRAM for experiments in programming with inductive families of data (of which GADTs are a special case). Using it for illustration, I will explore some of the possibilities and challenges afforded by full spectrum type dependency at the static and dynamic level: types directly support modelling complex invariants in terms of other data (rather than their types), with a Curry-Howard flavour of data-as-evidence; such complexity is on a 'pay-as-you-go' basis, while keeping type annotations and other syntactic overheads to a minimum; data decomposition steps, e.g. case analysis, furnish more informative interactions between types and values during typechecking; such steps may moreover be abstractly specified by their types, and thus user definable; this supports a style of programming embracing 'learning by testing', views, and Burstall's 'hand simulation plus a little induction'; the absence of a rigid phase distinction need not lead to type-passing or excessive run-time overhead; effectful computation, in particular partiality, can be incorporated via variations on existing ideas such as monads.This talk is based on joint work with Conor McBride, Edwin Brady and Thorsten Altenkirch.
Experiments of Some Performance Issues with IEEE 802.11b in Ad Hoc Networks

In this paper, we experiment different ad hoc configurations that have been pointed out in the literature for presenting some performance problems with IEEE 802.11 MAC protocol. We focus on fairness issues and show that some problems identified by simulation are real and should be considered while others are softened and some are even nonexistent due to either radio propagation or to implementation choices made by manufacturers.
Volume Regulated Anion Channel Currents of Rat Hippocampal Neurons and Their Contribution to Oxygen-and-Glucose Deprivation Induced Neuronal Death

Volume-regulated anion channels (VRAC) are widely expressed chloride channels that are critical for the cell volume regulation. In the mammalian central nervous system, the physiological expression of neuronal VRAC and its role in cerebral ischemia are issues largely unknown. We show that hypoosmotic medium induce an outwardly rectifying chloride conductance in CA1 pyramidal neurons in rat hippocampal slices. The induced chloride conductance was sensitive to some of the VRAC inhibitors, namely, IAA-94 (300 µM) and NPPB (100 µM), but not to tamoxifen (10 µM). Using oxygen-and-glucose deprivation (OGD) to simulate ischemic conditions in slices, VRAC activation appeared after OGD induced anoxic depolarization (AD) that showed a progressive increase in current amplitude over the period of post-OGD reperfusion. The OGD induced VRAC currents were significantly inhibited by inhibitors for glutamate AMPA (30 µM NBQX) and NMDA (40 µM AP-5) receptors in the OGD solution, supporting the view that induction of AD requires an excessive Na+-loading via these receptors that in turn to activate neuronal VRAC. In the presence of NPPB and DCPIB in the post-OGD reperfusion solution, the OGD induced CA1 pyramidal neuron death, as measured by TO-PRO-3-I staining, was significantly reduced, although DCPIB did not appear to be an effective neuronal VRAC blocker. Altogether, we show that rat hippocampal pyramidal neurons express functional VRAC, and ischemic conditions can initial neuronal VRAC activation that may contribute to ischemic neuronal damage.
Exploring the Attitudes and Intentions of Non-shoppers in the Acceptance of e-Commerce

Acceptance of online shopping adoption by individuals has been a concerning issue for researchers in the past decade. However, most research has focused in evaluating the attitudes and intention to use electronic commerce from the shoppers' perspective, neglecting to analyze the behavior and attitudes of those who have not adopted e-commerce yet: the non- shoppers. The objective of this study is to explore and evaluate the behavior and attitudes of the non-shoppers' segment towards the acceptance of business-to-consumer electronic commerce (B2C-EC). The theoretical foundations of the study are provided by the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Innovations Diffusion Theory (IDT), with the addition of a specific factor related to the nature of B2C-EC: product offering of the e-commerce channel. This framework leads to an attitudinal/behavioral model which seeks to identify the factors perceived by non-shoppers as the most important for the adoption of B2C-EC. The model has been validated with data from 995 Spanish non-shoppers using the partial least squares (PLS) technique. Findings from the analysis results show that perceived usefulness, perceived compatibility and product offering affect positively the attitude of non-shoppers towards the adoption of B2C-EC and their intention to use it. Among these factors, perceived compatibility stands out as the most relevant factor to foster the adoption of B2C-EC among non-shoppers. Other implications for theory and practice are discussed in the final section.
Different types of additional somatosensory information do not promote immediate benefits on gait in patients with Parkinson's disease and older adults

Plantar cutaneous stimulation has been shown to improve gait in Parkinson's disease (PD), but the effects of different types of insoles have not been tested. We evaluated the immediate effect of different types of insoles on gait in PD patients and healthy older adults. Nineteen PD patients and nineteen healthy older adults performed and performed a walking task at their self-selected speed in three conditions: conventional insole, insole with a raised ridge around the foot perimeter, and insole with half-spheres. Plantar sensation was evaluated before and after the walking protocol. There were no differences between groups for plantar sensation before and after the walking task. PD patients demonstrated reduced stride length and stride velocity. There were no immediate benefits offered by the insoles on gait of either group. The increased plantar cutaneous stimulation does not promote immediate benefits on gait in PD patients and healthy older adults.