Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effectiveness of strength-based executive coaching in enhancing transformational leadership

This study attempts to investigate the effectiveness of a strength-based coaching methodology in enhancing transformational leadership. Transformational leadership is the process whereby leaders engage and influence their followers towards attaining a shared vision through their capacity to inspire, innovate and personalize their attention. A between-subject quasi-experimental design was used to explore the impact of strength based coaching on transformational and transactional leadership behaviours measured in a 360-degree feedback process. Thirty-seven executives and senior managers from a large not-for-profit organisation were non-randomly assigned to either a coaching or waitlist cohort. The coaching cohort received six sessions of leadership coaching involving feedback on leadership and strengths, goal setting and strengths development. The coaching process was manualised (via a six session strengths-based coaching manual) to ensure some methodological consistency between the 11 executive coaches providing the intervention. After 6 sessions of coaching over three months, cohorts then switched roles. The results showed that participants experienced highly statistically significant increases in their transformational leadership behaviour after coaching and this difference was perceived at all levels within the organisation but not by the participants themselves. Adherence to the strength-based protocol was also a significant predictor of ultimate degree of change in transformational leadership behaviour. The results suggest that strength based coaching may be effective in the development of transformational leaders.
A methodology for assessing the predictable behaviour of mobile users in wireless networks

The analysis of the predictability of human behaviour is an emerging topic in the ubiquitous computing community. Recent endeavours in studying the human behaviour are either based on synthetic models or on real mobile user traces, but what they are mainly focusing on is location: discovering travel patterns or anticipating the whereabouts of mobile users. We extend the analysed context by studying the wireless behaviour of mobile users: interactions with both peers and network devices in academic and office environments. We propose a methodology and a set of guidelines to assess and aid in analysing wireless mobile traces. We prove that the human behaviour is predictable when the studied traced sets are convergent, complete and correct, and we obtain a surprising invariability in interacting with wireless access points, as we are able to pinpoint a wireless user to one of two locations at any specific hour. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Fast motion estimation using bidirectional gradient methods

Gradient-based motion estimation methods (GMs) are considered to be in the heart of state-of-the-art registration algorithms, being able to account for both pixel and subpixel registration and to handle various motion models (translation, rotation, affine, and projective). These methods estimate the motion between two images based on the local changes in the image intensities while assuming image smoothness. This paper offers two main contributions. The first is enhancement of the GM technique by introducing two new bidirectional formulations of the GM. These improve the convergence properties for large motions. The second is that we present an analytical convergence analysis of the GM and its properties. Experimental results demonstrate the applicability of these algorithms to real images.
Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium Requires the Lpf, Pef, and Tafi Fimbriae for Biofilm Formation on HEp-2 Tissue Culture Cells and Chicken Intestinal Epithelium

ABSTRACT Recent work has demonstrated that Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium forms biofilms on HEp-2 tissue culture cells in a type 1 fimbria-dependent manner. To investigate how biofilm growth of HEp-2 tissue culture cells affects gene expression in Salmonella, we compared global gene expression during planktonic growth and biofilm growth. Microarray results indicated that the transcription of ∼100 genes was substantially altered by growth in a biofilm. These genes encode proteins with a wide range of functions, including antibiotic resistance, central metabolism, conjugation, intracellular survival, membrane transport, regulation, and fimbrial biosynthesis. The identification of five fimbrial gene clusters was of particular interest, as we have demonstrated that type 1 fimbriae are required for biofilm formation on HEp-2 cells and murine intestinal epithelium. Mutations in each of these fimbriae were constructed in S. enterica serovar Typhimurium strain BJ2710, and the mutants were found to have various biofilm phenotypes on plastic, HEp-2 cells, and chicken intestinal tissue. The pef and csg mutants were defective for biofilm formation on each of the three surfaces tested, while the lpf mutant exhibited a complete loss of the ability to form a biofilm on chicken intestinal tissue but only an intermediate loss of the ability to form a biofilm on tissue culture cells and plastic surfaces. The bcf mutant displayed increased biofilm formation on both HEp-2 cells and chicken intestinal epithelium, while the sth mutant had no detectable biofilm defects. In all instances, the mutants could be restored to a wild-type phenotype by a plasmid carrying the functional genes. This is the first work to identify the genomic responses of Salmonella to biofilm formation on host cells, and this work highlights the importance of fimbriae in adhering to and adapting to a eukaryotic cell surface. An understanding of these interactions is likely to provide new insights for intervention strategies in Salmonella colonization and infection.
Comparison of image quality and radiation dose between prospectively ECG-triggered and retrospectively ECG-gated CT angiography: Establishing heart rate cut-off values in first-generation dual-source CT

Objective: To evaluate radiation dose and image quality of prospectively electrocardiography (ECG)-triggered and retrospectively ECG-gated coronary computed tomography (CT) angiography and to establish cut-off values of heart rates (HRs) for each technique in firstgeneration dual-source CT. Methods: A total of 200 consecutive patients with suspected coronary artery disease were accepted into the study. Patients were selected randomly for each technique (prospective triggering group n=99, mean age 55.85±10.74 and retrospective gating group n=101, mean age 53.38±11.58). Two independent radiologists scored coronary artery segments for image quality using a 5-point scale. Also, attenuation values of each coronary artery segment and dose-length product values were measured. For each technique, cut-off HR values were determined for the best image quality. Results: Mean image quality scores and attenuation values were found to be higher in the prospective triggering group (p<0.05). Mean radiation dose was 73% lower for the prospective triggering group (p<0.01). The cut-off HR values for good image quality scores were ≤67 beats per minute (bpm) and ≤80 bpm for the prospective triggering and retrospective gating groups, respectively (p<0.05). Increased HR (≥68 and ≥81 bpm, respectively) had negative effects on image quality (p<0.05). Conclusion: The prospective ECG triggering technique has better image quality scores than retrospective ECG gating, particularly in patients who have an HR of less than 68 bpm. Also, a 73% radiation dose reduction can be achieved with prospective ECG triggering. In patients with higher heart rates, retrospective ECG gating is recommended.
Glycohistochemistry: The Why and How of Detection and Localization of Endogenous Lectins

The central dogma of molecular biology limits the downstream flow of genetic information to proteins. Progress from the last two decades of research on cellular glycoconjugates justifies adding the enzymatic production of glycan antennae with information‐bearing determinants to this famous and basic pathway. An impressive variety of regulatory processes including cell growth and apoptosis, folding and routing of glycoproteins and cell adhesion/migration have been unravelled and found to be mediated or modulated by specific protein (lectin)–carbohydrate interactions. The conclusion has emerged that it would have meant missing manifold opportunities not to recruit the sugar code to cellular information transfer. Currently, the potential for medical applications in anti‐adhesion therapy or drug targeting is one of the major driving forces fuelling progress in glycosciences. In histochemistry, this concept has prompted the introduction of carrier‐immobilized carbohydrate ligands (neoglycoconjugates) to visualize the cells’ capacity to be engaged in oligosaccharide recognition. After their isolation these tissue lectins will be tested for ligand analysis. Since fine specificities of different lectins can differ despite identical monosaccharide binding, the tissue lectins will eventually replace plant agglutinins to move from glycan profiling and localization to functional considerations. Namely, these two marker types, i.e. neoglycoconjugates and tissue lectins, track down accessible binding sites with relevance for involvement in interactions in situ. The documented interplay of synthetic organic chemistry and biochemistry with cyto‐ and histochemistry nourishes the optimism that the application of this set of innovative custom‐prepared tools will provide important insights into the ways in which glycans can act as hardware in transmitting information during normal tissue development and pathological situations.
Simulation of pressure‐ and tube‐tooling wire‐coating flows through distributed computation

This article focuses on the comparative study of annular wire‐coating flows with polymer melt materials. Different process designs are considered of pressure‐ and tube‐tooling, complementing earlier studies on individual designs. A novel mass‐balance free‐surface location technique is proposed. The polymeric materials are represented via shear‐thinning, differential viscoelastic constitutive models, taken of exponential Phan‐Thien/Tanner form. Simulations are conducted for these industrial problems through distributed parallel computation, using a semi‐implicit time‐stepping Taylor‐Galerkin/pressure‐correction algorithm. On typical field results and by comparing short‐against full‐die pressure‐tooling solutions, shear‐rates are observed to increase ten fold, while strain rates increase one hundred times. Tube‐tooling shear and extension‐rates are one quarter of those for pressure‐tooling. These findings across design options, have considerable bearing on the appropriateness of choice for the respective process involved. Parallel finite element results are generated on a homogeneous network of Intel‐chip workstations, running PVM (Parallel Vitual Machine) protocol over a Solaris operating system. Parallel timings yield practically ideal linear speed‐up over the set number of processors.
Behavioral Neuroscience

in the A10 dopamine neurons activation in the medial prefrontal cortex (Redmond et al., 2002), and the cortical dopamine turnover activation occurs during a stress response involving c-fos gene expression. Using TMT exposure, Müller and Fendt (2006) have demonstrated the essential role of medial amygdala nucleus in the unconditioned fear-like behavioral responses. However, some questions are unresolved in the use of TMT. Specifically the possibility that TMT could act more as a pungent odor activating intranasal trigeminal nerve fibers (Brand, 2006) rather than a predator index has been raised (Fendt et al., 2005). The distinction between olfactory and trigeminal component in unconditioned fear to predator odor is crucial insofar as the neurocircuitry for each sensory system is strongly different and because the activation of the trigeminal nerve triggers specific protective reflexes. Thus, comparative studies (Zangrossi and File, 1992; McGregor et al., 2002) observed no TMT-induced fear responses such as freezing or anxiety-like behavior contrary to natural cat odor collected by rubbing collar. In contrast, TMT consistently elicited avoidance in the same manner as toxic substances, e.g., toluene (Jacquot et al., 2006). Recently, it has been shown that anxiety-related behaviors increased according to TMT concentrations (Buron et al., 2007) and that TMT produced a greater effect than the natural equivalent, i.e., odor of fox feces. The olfactory epithelium is specific insofar as sensory neurons are directly in contact with the exterior environment and have the particularity to regenerate. The neurogenic process is of interest to study toxicological effects of substances inducing physiological damages onto the neuroepithelium. Regeneration and functional restoration appear few weeks after olfactory epithelium lesion or destruction (Schultz, 1960). The neuronal regeneration is due to the
Daily step count is associated with plasma C-reactive protein and IL-6 in a US cohort with COPD.

BACKGROUND Physical activity is an important clinical marker of disease status in COPD. COPD is also characterized by low-grade systemic inflammation. However, the relationship between physical activity and systemic inflammation in COPD is unclear. METHODS We monitored daily step count, a directly measured physical activity, using the StepWatch Activity Monitor, an ankle-worn accelerometer, in 171 people with stable COPD. Exercise capacity was assessed with the 6-min walk test (6MWT). We measured plasma C-reactive protein (CRP) and IL-6 levels. Linear regression models examined the cross-sectional associations of daily step count and 6MWT distance with CRP and IL-6 levels. RESULTS Subjects had a mean age 72±8 years and mean FEV1 1.5±0.57 L (54±20% predicted). Median daily step count was 5,203 (interquartile range [IQR], 3,627-7,024], CRP level was 2.4 mg/L (IQR, 1.2-5.0), and IL-6 level was 2.9 pg/mL (IQR, 2.0-5.1). Each 1,000-step increase in daily step count was associated with a 0.94 mg/L and 0.96 pg/mL decrease in CRP (P=.020) and IL-6 (P=.044) levels, respectively, adjusting for age, FEV1 % predicted, pack-years smoked, cardiac disease, current statin use, history of acute exacerbations, and season. There was a significant linear trend of increasing daily step count by quartiles and decreasing CRP (P=.0007) and IL-6 (P=.023) levels. Higher 6MWT distance was also significantly associated with lower CRP and IL-6 values. CONCLUSION People with COPD who walked the most had the lowest plasma CRP and IL-6 levels. These results provide the conceptual basis to study whether an intervention to promote walking will reduce systemic inflammation in people with COPD.
Quality of alignment comparison by COMPASS improves with inclusion of diverse confident homologs

MOTIVATION Adding more distant homologs to a multiple alignment and thus increasing its diversity may eventually deteriorate the numerical profile constructed from this alignment. Here, we addressed the question whether such a diversity limit can be reached in the alignments of confident homologs found by PSI-BLAST, and we analyzed the dependence of the quality of the profile-profile comparison made by COMPASS on the sequence diversity within these alignments. RESULTS Protein families that have a greater number of diverse confident homologs in the current sequence databases provide an increased quality of similarity detection in profile databases, but produce on average less accurate profile-profile alignments with their remote relatives. This lower alignment accuracy cannot be improved when the most distant members of these families are excluded from their profiles. On the contrary, the presence of more diverse members results in more accurate alignments. For families with a high diversity of confident homologs, the lower quality of profile alignments with their remote relatives seems to be an attribute of these families or their alignments, rather than to be caused by the large number of diverse sequences itself. Our results suggest that at any level of profile diversity, one should include in the multiple alignment as many confident sequence homologs as possible in order to produce the most accurate results.
Combined effects of lipid transfers and lipolysis on gradient gel patterns of human plasma LDL.

The triglyceride content of the plasma very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) fraction is the most important factor affecting the size of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) in humans. Because cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) can influence the size distribution of LDL particles in human plasma, the implication of lipid transfers in the formation of small-sized LDL patterns, which have been associated with elevated plasma triglyceride levels, was investigated. The size distribution of LDL particles in 15 plasma samples was determined by electrophoresis of the plasma LDL fraction on 20 to 160 g/L polyacrylamide gradient gels. The apparent diameter of the major LDL subfraction was shown to correlate negatively with triglyceride concentrations (r = -.706, P < .005) and positively with both high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels (r = .637, P < .02) and the high-density lipoprotein/VLDL + LDL cholesterol ratio (r = .768, P < .001). In addition, LDL size correlated negatively with both the ability of plasma LDL to donate cholesteryl esters (r = -.79, P < .001) and its ability to acquire triglycerides (r = -.72, P < .005). Whereas these observations indicated that CETP-mediated alterations of the triglyceride/cholesteryl ester ratio of the LDL core would contribute to changes in LDL diameter, they suggested that the formation of small-sized gradient gel LDL patterns would require another biochemical event, such as lipolysis, in addition to neutral lipid transfers. To test this hypothesis, total plasma samples with or without added VLDL (added triglyceride concentration, 2.0 g/L) were preincubated for 24 hours at 37 degrees C. Preincubation mainly induced the replacement of cholesteryl esters by triglycerides in the LDL core, and changes in LDL composition were greater when total plasma was supplemented with VLDL. Subsequently, isolated LDL was incubated in the presence of bovine milk lipoprotein lipase as a source of triglyceride hydrolysis activity. Lipolysis tended to reduce the size of the major LDL subpopulation, and the mean change in LDL diameter was significantly greater when plasma was preincubated with VLDL supplementation than when it was not (-0.6 +/- 0.3 versus -0.2 +/- 0.2 nm, respectively; (P < .01). Moreover, sequential effects of lipid transfer and lipolysis activities induced dramatic changes in the general shape of gradient gel LDL patterns. The largest plasma LDL subpopulations tended to disappear, and the formation of new, small LDL particles could be observed. The combined effects of neutral lipid transfers and triglyceride hydrolysis could account for variations of gradient gel LDL profiles in human plasma. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Cancer Therapy : Preclinical Fibroblast Growth Factor Receptors Are Components of Autocrine Signaling Networks in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cells

Purpose: We previously reported that a fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptor (FGFR) signaling pathway drives growth of lung cancer cell lines of squamous and large cell histologies. Herein, we explored FGFR dependency in cell lines derived from the tobacco-related malignancy, head and neck squamous cell
Normal Leptin Expression, Lower Adipogenic Ability, Decreased Leptin Receptor and Hyposensitivity to Leptin in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis

Leptin has been suggested to play a role in the etiology of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS), however, the leptin levels in AIS girls are still a discrepancy, and no in vitro study of leptin in AIS is reported. We took a series of case-control studies, trying to understand whether Leptin gene polymorphisms are involved in the etiology of the AIS or the change in leptin level is a secondary event, to assess the level of leptin receptor, and to evaluate the differences of response to leptin between AIS cases and controls. We screened all exons of Leptin gene in 45 cases and 45 controls and selected six tag SNPs to cover all the observed variations. Association analysis in 446 AIS patients and 550 healthy controls showed no association between the polymorphisms of Leptin gene and susceptibility/severity to AIS. Moreover, adipogenesis assay of bone mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) suggested that the adipogenic ability of MSCs from AIS girls was lower than controls. After adjusting the differentiation rate, expressions of leptin and leptin receptor were similar between two groups. Meanwhile, osteogenesis assay of MSC showed the leptin level was similar after adjusting the differentiation rate, but the leptin receptor level was decreased in induced AIS osteoblasts. Immunocytochemistry and western blot analysis showed less leptin receptors expressed in AIS group. Furthermore, factorial designed studies with adipogenesis and osteogenesis revealed that the MSCs from patients have no response to leptin treatment. Our results suggested that Leptin gene variations are not associated with AIS and low serum leptin probably is a secondary outcome which may be related to the low capability of adipogenesis in AIS. The decreased leptin receptor levels may lead to the hyposensitivity to leptin. These findings implied that abnormal peripheral leptin signaling plays an important role in the pathological mechanism of AIS.
Effect of physical training on the oxidation of an oral glucose load at rest: a naturally labeled 13C-glucose study.

UNLABELLED This study aimed at investigating, in six healthy, non obese, young (25 +/- 1 years) male volunteers, with strictly normal oral glucose tolerance, the influence of a six week physical training period (60 min bicycling 5 days/week at 30-40% of their individual VO2 max) on the hormonal and metabolic response to a 100 g oral 13C-naturally labeled glucose load given at rest before and 36 h after the last training session. Exogenous glucose oxidation was derived from 13CO2 measurements on expired air. Training resulted in: a 29% increase in VO2 max (2 p less than 0.002), a 27% decrease in plasma triglycerides (2 p less than 0.02). No changes were observed concerning weight, total body K, skinfold tolerance, which was strictly normal before training, remained unchanged, but the insulin response to the oral glucose load decreased by 24% (2 p less than 0.025). Exogenous glucose oxidation was similar before and after training, averaging 35.9 +/- 2.1 and 37.4 +/- 2.0 g/7 h respectively. IN CONCLUSION a 6 week training period, performed on strictly healthy young males, studied at rest, induced an increase in VO2 max, a decrease in plasma triglycerides and a lower insulin response to oral glucose while glucose tolerance and exogenous glucose oxidation remained unchanged.
Author's Personal Copy Statistics and Probability Letters a Generalized Regression Model for a Binary Response

In most cases authors are permitted to post their version of the article (e.g. in Word or Tex form) to their personal website or institutional repository. Authors requiring further information regarding Elsevier's archiving and manuscript policies are encouraged to visit: a b s t r a c t Logistic regression is the closest model, given its sufficient statistics, to the model of constant success probability in terms of Kullback–Leibler information. A generalized binary model has this property for the more general φ-divergence. These results generalize to multinomial and other discrete data.