Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SRC3 expressed in BMSCs promotes growth and migration of multiple myeloma cells by regulating the expression of Cx43

Interactions between bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) and multiple myeloma cells significantly contribute to the progression of multiple myeloma (MM). However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms that regulate these interactions. Connexin-43 (Cx-43) has been implicated in the interplay between BMSCs and MM cells. In this study, we hypothesized that the steroid receptor co-activator-3 (SRC3) expressed in BMSCs regulates the expression of Cx-43 to promote the proliferation and migration of myeloma cells. To address this, we co-cultured a human multiple myeloma cell line, RPMI-8226 transfected with either control BMSCs or sh-SRC3-BMSCs. We found that knocking down SRC3 expression in BMSCs inhibited the proliferation and migration of RPMI-8226 cells. In addition, we found that co-culturing RPMI 8266 cells with BMSCs increased Cx43 expression, while knocking down SRC3 expression in BMSCs decreased Cx43 expression. Moreover, our work revealed that SRC3 in BMSCs regulates Cx43 expression via the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway. To validate this result in vivo, we knocked down SRC3 expression in BMSCs in nude mice and found that tumor growth and cell apoptosis were significantly decreased. In addition, mice treated with either RPMI 8266 cells overexpressing Cx43 or with a P38 MAPK inhibitor (SB202190) exhibited increased intratumoral leukocyte populations and promoted cell apoptosis in tumor tissue. Our findings demonstrate how SRC3 and Cx43 regulation between BMSCs and myeloma cells mediate cell growth and disease progression, with potential implications for prognosis and therapeutic interventions.
The neurobiological basis of seeing words

This review summarizes recent ideas about the cortical circuits for seeing words, an important part of the brain system for reading. Historically, the link between the visual cortex and reading has been contentious. One influential position is that the visual cortex plays a minimal role, limited to identifying contours, and that information about these contours is delivered to cortical regions specialized for reading and language. An alternative position is that specializations for seeing words develop within the visual cortex itself. Modern neuroimaging measurements—including both functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and diffusion weighted imaging with tractography (DTI) data—support the position that circuitry for seeing the statistical regularities of word forms develops within the ventral occipitotemporal cortex, which also contains important circuitry for seeing faces, colors, and forms. This review explains new findings about the visual pathways, including visual field maps, as well as new findings about how we see words. The measurements from the two fields are in close cortical proximity, and there are good opportunities for coordinating theoretical ideas about function in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex.
A community-led bilingual school in action: the Deutsche Schule Melbourne (DSM)

This research is a case study of the Deutsche Schule Melbourne – A German English Bilingual School (DSM). Located five kilometres from the Melbourne CBD in North Fitzroy, the DSM was established as an independent school in 2008. A unique feature of the DSM is that the school has not yet appointed a principal. This study investigated the founding of this school and asked, “What led to the creation of the DSM and how has the school been developed and sustained since then? ” The scope of this research also included two minor questions involving the success of the school to date and the future needs and directions of the school. It describes the creation of this new bilingual school and examines the key factors in its formation and development. Data were gathered through documents and semi-structured, one-to-one and group interviews which comprised a selection of teachers and parents, as well as current and former Board members of the DSM. The case study revealed that the idea for the DSM came from within the German-Australian community who wanted to establish a German-speaking school in Melbourne which would also become a focal point for their community. By drawing and building on support from within that same community, the school was formed. Two distinct phases in the school’s creation were identified and described: The Founding Phase and The Established Phase. Each phase contained a number of clearly defined developmental milestones. In both phases, members from the school community and the wider German-Australian community led the creation and development of the school, making it a community-led school. Key factors found to be essential to the formation of the DSM were: a clear vision; a distributed leadership model; a distinctive marketing orientation; high levels of community support; a collaborative, democratic decision-making process; bilingual/bicultural focus; and, high levels of commitment and persistence. Further analysis revealed strong similarities to Kotter’s theory of change management process in the way the school was created and developed. A comparison of the leadership demonstrated by the DSM community and the Victorian model of Successful Principalship which was part of the International Successful School Principalship Project also showed that the DSM was successfully led by its community. This case study provides insight into new school formation, school leadership, bilingual education and community involvement in schools, and will be of interest to policy makers, researchers and those involved in schools.
Anger and Drug Addiction

Differences in the experience, expression, and control of anger were evaluated for young-adult drug addicts and a control group (matched in age, residence, and education) of nondrug users from Southern Italy. The Italian adaptation of Spielberger's State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI) was administered with standard instructions to both groups. Drug abusers had significantly higher scores on the STAXI State and Trait scales, the Trait-Angry Temperament and Reaction sub-scales, and the Anger-Out and Total Anger Expression scales, and significantly lower scores on Anger-Control. These findings indicate that the drug abusers experienced anger more often than the nonusers, were more likely to express anger toward other persons or objects in the environment, and had less control of their angry feelings.
Genome sequence and emended description of Leisingera nanhaiensis strain DSM 24252T isolated from marine sediment

Leisingera nanhaiensis DSM 24252T is a Gram-negative, motile, rod-shaped marine Alphaproteobacterium, isolated from sandy marine sediments. Here we present the non-contiguous genome sequence and annotation together with a summary of the organism’s phenotypic features. The 4,948,550 bp long genome with its 4,832 protein-coding and 64 RNA genes consists of one chromosome and six extrachromosomal elements with lengths of 236 kb, 92 kb, 61 kb, 58 kb, 56 kb, and 35 kb, respectively. The analysis of the genome showed that DSM 24252T possesses all genes necessary for dissimilatory nitrite reduction, and the strain was shown to be facultatively anaerobic, a deviation from the original description that calls for an emendation of the species. Also present in the genome are genes coding for a putative prophage, for gene-transfer agents and for the utilization of methylated amines. Phylogenetic analysis and intergenomic distances indicate that L. nanhaiensis might not belong to the genus Leisingera.
VEGF Stimulates RCAN1.4 Expression in Endothelial Cells via a Pathway Requiring Ca2+/Calcineurin and Protein Kinase C-δ

Background Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has previously been shown to upregulate the expression of the endogenous calcineurin inhibitor, regulator of calcineurin 1, variant 4 (RCAN1.4). The aim of this study was to determine the role and regulation of VEGF-mediated RCAN1.4 expression, using human dermal microvascular endothelial cells (HDMECs) as a model system. Methodology/Principal Findings We show that VEGF is able to induce RCAN1.4 expression during cellular proliferation and differentiation, and that VEGF-mediated expression of RCAN1.4 was inhibited by the use of inhibitors to protein kinase C (PKC) and calcineurin. Further analysis revealed that siRNA silencing of PKC-delta expression partially inhibited VEGF-stimulated RCAN1.4 expression. Knockdown of RCAN1.4 with siRNA resulted in a decrease in cellular migration and disrupted tubular morphogenesis when HDMECs were either stimulated with VEGF in a collagen gel or in an endothelial/fibroblast co-culture model of angiogenesis. Analysis of intracellular signalling revealed that siRNA mediated silencing of RCAN1.4 resulted in increased expression of specific nuclear factor of activated T-cells (NFAT) regulated genes. Conclusions/Significance Our data suggests that RCAN1.4 expression is induced by VEGFR-2 activation in a Ca2+ and PKC-delta dependent manner and that RCAN1.4 acts to regulate calcineurin activity and gene expression facilitating endothelial cell migration and tubular morphogenesis.
Cardiovascular function in the heat‐stressed human

Heat stress, whether passive (i.e. exposure to elevated environmental temperatures) or via exercise, results in pronounced cardiovascular adjustments that are necessary for adequate temperature regulation as well as perfusion of the exercising muscle, heart and brain. The available data suggest that generally during passive heat stress baroreflex control of heart rate and sympathetic nerve activity are unchanged, while baroreflex control of systemic vascular resistance may be impaired perhaps due to attenuated vasoconstrictor responsiveness of the cutaneous circulation. Heat stress improves left ventricular systolic function, evidenced by increased cardiac contractility, thereby maintaining stroke volume despite large reductions in ventricular filling pressures. Heat stress‐induced reductions in cerebral perfusion likely contribute to the recognized effect of this thermal condition in reducing orthostatic tolerance, although the mechanism(s) by which this occurs is not completely understood. The combination of intense whole‐body exercise and environmental heat stress or dehydration‐induced hyperthermia results in significant cardiovascular strain prior to exhaustion, which is characterized by reductions in cardiac output, stroke volume, arterial pressure and blood flow to the brain, skin and exercising muscle. These alterations in cardiovascular function and regulation late in heat stress/dehydration exercise might involve the interplay of both local and central reflexes, the contribution of which is presently unresolved.
Integrated effects of poultry manure and chemical fertilizer on the growth, leaf yield and stevioside content of stevia

Stevia is important for its leaves which are used as non calorie sweetener and also in many therapeutic applications including diabetes. The present investigation was carried out in the net house of the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh to investigate the integrated effects of poultry manure (PM) and chemical fertilizer (CF) on the growth, leaf biomass yield and stevioside content of stevia grown in two contrasting soils (acid and non-calcareous) of Bangladesh. Six combinations of PM and CF viz. PM0+CF0, PM0+CF100, PM3+CF50, PM3+CF75, PM5+CF50, PM5+CF75 were used. The study revealed that PM along with different percentages of chemical fertilizers exerted significant influence on the growth, leaf yield and stevioside content of stevia. The highest values of all the parameters except stevioside were found from the plant receiving PM @ 3 t ha-1 along with 75% CF. The leaf biomass yield was 1088% and 867% higher in acid soil and non-calcareous soil, respectively, over control. Stevioside content was increased with increasing the levels of PM up to 5 t ha-1 and also with the advancement of growth period from 30 to 60 days after planting. The highest amount of stevioside (10.45%) was detected in the leaves of the plant that received PM @ 5 t ha-1 along with 75% CF at 60 DAP in acid soil and it was 9.11% in non-calcareous soil at the same period. The lowest values of all the parameters including stevioside content were obtained from the plant which received neither PM nor CF. Considering the overall performance, farmers may be advised to cultivate stevia in acid soil applying PM @ 3 t ha-1 along with 75% chemical fertilizer to boost up the production of stevia under the agro-climatic condition of the study area in the context of Bangladesh.
Neurotrophins Differentially Regulate Voltage-Gated Ion Channels

Neurotrophic factors profoundly affect neuronal differentiation, but whether they influence neuronal phenotype in instructive ways remains unclear: do different neurotrophic factors always trigger identical programs of differentiation or can each impose distinct functional properties even when acting upon the same population of target neurons? We addressed this issue by examining the regulatory effects of the four neurotrophins on the molecular components of electrical excitability, voltage-gated ion channels, within a single cellular context. Using patch clamp methods, we studied neurotrophin regulation of voltage-gated sodium, calcium, and potassium currents in SK-N-SH neuroblastoma cells. We found that each neurotrophin induced a unique pattern of expression of ionic currents despite similar activation of initial signal transduction events. Thus, each neurotrophin imposed a different excitable phenotype even when acting upon the same target cells.
Developing a tool to monitor potentially avoidable and ambulatory care sensitive hospitalisations in New Zealand children.

BACKGROUND In New Zealand there has been increasing interest in reducing avoidable hospitalisations, particularly from conditions treatable in primary care. To date avoidable hospitalisations in children have been monitored using adult tools which contain many conditions irrelevant to children. Further, New Zealand has large socioeconomic gradients in hospitalisations for many paediatric conditions, suggesting that the social determinants of health also heavily influence avoidable hospitalisations in this age group. AIMS (1) To develop a tool to monitor potentially avoidable hospitalisations in New Zealand children which includes the socioeconomic determinants of health within the conceptualisation of "avoidable"; and (2) Within this broader framework, to identify a sub-set of conditions which are amenable to intervention in primary care. METHODS Five selection criteria were developed to define Potentially Avoidable Hospitalisations (PAH), and a further two criteria were used to define a subset of Ambulatory Care Sensitive Hospitalisations (ACSH). The principal diagnoses for all acute hospitalisations in New Zealand children (1 month-14 years) during 2003-2005 were then reviewed, and a list of 42 conditions created. This list was sent to 17 health professionals with experience in child health, who were asked to score each condition against the 5 PAH and 2 ACSH criteria. RESULTS Twenty-six conditions contributing to PAH were identified, along with 18 contributing to ACSH. PAH tended to be infectious or respiratory in nature, with hospitalisations for chronic medical conditions or surgical problems being viewed as non-avoidable. While a similar pattern was seen for ACSH, viral infections were viewed as non-ambulatory care sensitive. CONCLUSIONS While the tools developed are a considerable improvement on those used to date, the use of diagnostic coding algorithms to monitor ACSH and by inference, the performance of primary care, remains problematic for a number of reasons. Nevertheless, the broadening of PAH to encompass the wider determinants of health, serves to highlight the role Government social and other policies might play in reducing the large burden of avoidable morbidity currently being experienced in this age group.
Variant-based competitive parallel execution of sequential programs

Competitive parallel execution (CPE) is a simple yet attractive technique to improve the performance of sequential programs on multi-core and multi-processor systems. A sequential program is transformed into a CPE-enabled program by introducing multiple variants for parts of the program. The performance of different variants depends on runtime conditions, such as program input or the execution platform, and the execution time of a CPE-enabled program is the sum of the shortest variants. Variants compete at run-time under the control of a CPE-aware run-time system. The run-time system ensures that the behavior and outcome of a CPE-enabled program is not distinguishable from the one of its original sequential counterpart. We present and evaluate a run-time system that is implemented as a user-space library and that closely interacts with the operating system. The paper discusses two strategies for the generation of variants and investigates the applicability of CPE for two usage scenarios: i) computation-driven CPE: a simple and straightforward parallelization of heuristic algorithms, and ii) compiler-driven CPE: generation of CPE-enabled programs as part of the compilation process using different optimization strategies. Using a state-of-the-art SAT solver as an illustrative example, we report for compiler-based CPE speedups of 4-6% for many data sets, with a maximum slowdown of 2%. Computation-driven CPE provides super-linear speedups for 5 out of 31 data sets (with a maximum speedup of 7.4) and at most a slow-down of 1% for two data sets.
Software reliability growth with test coverage

"Software test-coverage measures" quantify the degree of thoroughness of testing. Tools are now available that measure test-coverage in terms of blocks, branches, computation-uses, predicate-uses, etc. that are covered. This paper models the relations among testing time, coverage, and reliability. An LE (logarithmic-exponential) model is presented that relates testing effort to test coverage (block, branch, computation-use, or predicate-use). The model is based on the hypothesis that the enumerable elements (like branches or blocks) for any coverage measure have various probabilities of being exercised; just like defects have various probabilities of being encountered. This model allows relating a test-coverage measure directly with defect-coverage. The model is fitted to 4 data-sets for programs with real defects. In the model, defect coverage can predict the time to next failure. The LE model can eliminate variables like test-application strategy from consideration. It is suitable for high reliability applications where automatic (or manual) test generation is used to cover enumerables which have not yet been tested. The data-sets used suggest the potential of the proposed model. The model is simple and easily explained, and thus can be suitable for industrial use. The LE model is based on the time-based logarithmic software-reliability growth model. It considers that: at 100% coverage for a given enumerable, all defects might not yet have been found.
A handbook of biological investigation

"Handbook of Biological Confocal Microscopy, Second Edition", Opt. Eng. 35(9), 2765-2766 (Sep 01, Deep stroma investigation by confocal microscopy. Find 9780887253317 A Handbook of Biological Investigation 7th Edition by Ambrose et al at over 30 bookstores. Buy, rent or sell. Evidence can serve many roles in an investigation, such as to trace an illicit substance, identify remains or reconstruct a crime. NIJ funds research.
Sequence of key events in shoot gravitropism.

It has recently been shown that asymmetric acid efflux is closely correlated with the gravitropic curvature of plant shoots and roots. The research reported here addresses whether auxin (IAA) redistribution in shoots is the cause or result of asymmetric acid efflux.When abraded sunflower (Helianthus annuus cv Mammoth) hypocotyls are submerged in 20 millimolar neutral buffer, gravicurvature is greatly retarded relative to 0.2 millimolar controls. Nevertheless, in both buffer systems there is a similar redistribution of [(3)H]IAA toward the lower surface of gravistimulated sunflower hypocotyls. These results suggest that graviperception initiates IAA redistribution, which in turn results in auxin-induced asymmetric H(+) efflux across the shoot. This interpretation is reinforced by data showing the effects of removal of the epidermal layers (peeling), osmotic shock, and morphactin treatment on gravicurvature and [(3)H]IAA redistribution. Peeling and osmotic shock inhibit gravicurvature but not redistribution. Morphactin inhibits both processes but does not inhibit hypocotyl straight growth.
Recovery from PTSD following Hurricane Katrina

Background: We examined patterns and correlates of speed of recovery of estimated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among people who developed PTSD in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Method: A probability sample of prehurricane residents of areas affected by Hurricane Katrina was administered a telephone survey 7–19 months following the hurricane and again 24–27 months posthurricane. The baseline survey assessed PTSD using a validated screening scale and assessed a number of hypothesized predictors of PTSD recovery that included sociodemographics, prehurricane history of psychopathology, hurricane‐related stressors, social support, and social competence. Exposure to posthurricane stressors and course of estimated PTSD were assessed in a follow‐up interview. Results: An estimated 17.1% of respondents had a history of estimated hurricane‐related PTSD at baseline and 29.2% by the follow‐up survey. Of the respondents who developed estimated hurricane‐related PTSD, 39.0% recovered by the time of the follow‐up survey with a mean duration of 16.5 months. Predictors of slow recovery included exposure to a life‐threatening situation, hurricane‐related housing adversity, and high income. Other sociodemographics, history of psychopathology, social support, social competence, and posthurricane stressors were unrelated to recovery from estimated PTSD. Conclusions: The majority of adults who developed estimated PTSD after Hurricane Katrina did not recover within 18–27 months. Delayed onset was common. Findings document the importance of initial trauma exposure severity in predicting course of illness and suggest that pre‐ and posttrauma factors typically associated with course of estimated PTSD did not influence recovery following Hurricane Katrina. Depression and Anxiety, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Is it time to stop teaching breast self-examination?

Breast self-examination (BSE) is a patient-centred, inexpensive and noninvasive method of screening for breast cancer. In North America most women are aware of BSE, and about one-third perform the examination regularly. [1][1] The majority of primary care physicians report either teaching BSE to
Risk-Focused e-Commerce Adoption Model - A Cross-Country Study

While e-Commerce has proliferated with the growth of the Internet, there have been insufficient research efforts concerning its status in Korea. The United States, in contrast, has made significant efforts in making empirical research on the consumer’s adoption of e-Commerce. This paper validates the e-Commerce Adoption Model (e-CAM) on the two countries. e-CAM integrates the technology acceptance model with the theories of perceived risk to explain the e-Commerce adoption. The study findings not only provide interim support for the generalizability of e-CAM, but also suggest that online firms should consider these contextual factors in order to facilitate consumers’ adoption behavior.