Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Relationship between Thing-Person Orientation and the Perception of Animals

AbstractA tendency for people to perceive animals as being either thinglike or personlike is identified as a theme in the literature. It was hypothesized that this is related to an individual's differential orientation toward persons (P) and things (T), per Little's (1968, 1972, 1976) “specialization” theory. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses on data from 101 subjects revealed that females, generalists (high T and P), and person specialists (high P, low T) were more oriented toward animals than were males, non-specialists (low T and P), and thing specialists (high T, low P). More personalistic perceptions of animals were associated with females, individuals highly oriented toward animals, and individuals with an interest in people. Younger, female person specialists tended to favor different animals from those favored by younger, male thing specialists. The implications of these results for understanding animal-related conflicts, for policymakers, and for education initiatives are discussed.
Circulating androgens and SHBG during the normal menstrual cycle in two ethnic populations

Abstract The objective of this study was to study possible ethnic differences in steroid hormones and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) during the menstrual cycle. Serum levels of the ovarian steroids estradiol (E2) and progesterone (P) and of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), SHBG, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and testosterone (T-ria) were all measured by immunoassay during the menstrual cycle in 15 Swedish and 11 West Asian regularly menstruating women. Testosterone (T-ms) was also measured by LC-MS/MS and so were 4-androstene-3,17-dione (A-4) and 17-alpha-hydroxyprogesterone (17-OHP). There were no ethnic differences in levels of ovarian steroids, gonadotrophins, A-4, 17-OHP and T-ms. DHEA were significantly higher and SHBG significantly lower in West Asian than in Swedish women. Surprisingly, T-ria was significantly higher in West Asian than in Swedish women and higher than T-ms (47% in Swedish and 107% in West Asian women). The difference (T-ria − T-ms) showed strong positive correlations to DHEA in the total and in West Asian but not in Swedish women, indicating an influence of DHEA/DHEAS metabolites on the T-ria results. In conclusion, ethnic differences in cross reacting steroids may cause erroneous results in one ethnic group by a steroid immunoassay having reasonable specificity in another. The reasons for the lower SHBG and the higher DHEA levels in West Asian women are not known. The results raise the question about establishing different reference values for certain analytes in different ethnic groups.
Assessment of early language development in Turkish children with a cochlear implant using the TEDIL test

Objectives: To analyse language development of children with a cochlear implant (CI) in relation to length of CI use and age at implantation and to examine the suitability of the TEDIL as an assessment tool for measuring early language development in Turkish children. Methods: A total of 119 children implanted with a CI before 5 years of age were assessed acutely on sound field thresholds, speech recognition thresholds, open-set and closed-set monosyllabic word tests, the TEDIL, categories of auditory performance (CAP), and speech intelligibility rating (SIR). The outcome scores were analysed in relation to length of CI use (3, 4, and 5 years) and age at implantation (<24 months vs. >24 months). The TEDIL scores were compared to all other outcome measures. Results: Scores significantly increased with CI experience. CAP and SIR were significantly higher in the younger implanted group. No significant difference was observed between the younger and older implanted group on the closed-set and open-set monosyllabic tests and the TEDIL. The TEDIL scores significantly correlated with CAP, SIR, and the closed-set and open-set word scores. The mean TEDIL standard score was close to average. Conclusions: Performance of CI users improves with increased CI experience. CI users implanted <24 months tend to have better auditory skills and clearer speech than CI users implanted >24 months. CI users implanted between 24 months and 60 months tend to develop language similarly to CI users implanted <24 months. The TEDIL is a suitable tool for assessing early receptive and expressive language development in Turkish children.
Free Trade and the Environment

what should environmentalists say about free trade? Many environmentalists object to free trade by appealing the “Race to the Bottom Argument. ” This argument is inconclusive, but there are reasons to worry about unrestricted free trade’s environmental effects nonetheless; the rules of trade embodied in institutions such as the World Trade Organization may be unjustifiable. Programs to compensate for trade-related environmental damage, appropriate trade barriers, and consumer movements may be necessary and desirable. At least environmentalists should consider these alternatives to unrestricted free trade if they do not prevent the achievement of other important moral objectives, can efficiently reduce environmental problems, and institutional safeguards can prevent their abuse.
A role of the sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P)–S1P receptor 2 pathway in epithelial defense against cancer (EDAC)

Normal epithelial cells have an ability to sense and actively eliminate neighboring transformed cells, a process called epithelial defense against cancer (EDAC). Exogenous S1P plays a crucial role in EDAC; the S1P–S1PR2 pathway regulates Rho–Rho kinase–filamin in the surrounding normal cells, promoting apical extrusion of RasV12-transformed cells from epithelia.
Gender differences in the developmental trajectories, risk factors and outcomes of antisocial behaviors

The purpose of this review was to synthesize relevant research concerning gender differences in risk factors, developmental trajectories and outcomes of antisocial behaviors. Regarding risk factors, research suggests that genetic factors predict female antisocial behavior more so than male antisocial behavior. Research suggests that neonatal insults were found to be better predictors of male antisocial behaviors relative to females. Research also suggests that neurocognitive differences (e.g., ADHD) were more predictive of antisocial behaviors in males than in females. Social factors (i.e., family-related and peer related) were found to predict behavior differently in males and females, depending on the variable in question. With regards to developmental trajectories, the reviewed research suggests that both males and females adhere to similar paths, but differ mostly as a matter of quantity of behaviors along those paths. Finally, it was shown that males on antisocial behavior trajectories faired more poorly than females, but this effect was trajectory dependent.
Earning and learning: how term‐time employment impacts on students' adjustment to university life

The number of students in higher education has risen sharply in recent years, and an increasing proportion of students combine paid employment with university life. In a review of studies which have investigated the relationship between ‘earning and learning’, it is noted that the overall focus to date has been on the negative impact of combining these roles. This suggests that term‐time employment leads to poorer adjustment to university life in terms of academic performance, social inclusion and psychological well‐being. However, we suggest that methodological problems are evident which make it difficult to draw firm and generalizable conclusions regarding the interrelationship between university life and part‐time employment roles. The paper suggests that a psychological transactional approach focusing on both positive and negative outcomes of role interrelationships could be adopted to more accurately inform universities, student bodies and employers of optimal ways of combining study and employment.
Risk factors for waterborne enteric infections

Risk factors for waterborne enteric infections are deduced primarily from outbreak surveillance data; however, in the United States, only a fraction of the estimated water-related outbreaks are reported through passive surveillance. In the past several years, advances in molecular detection techniques have furthered our knowledge about foodborne and waterborne causes of gastroenteritis, allowing the association of certain pathogens with biologic and exposure-related susceptibilities in their hosts. This article summarizes some of the recent data characterizing susceptibility to three common waterborne pathogens:Cryptosporidium, a protozoan; Norwalk-like virus; and the bacterium Escherichia coli O157:H7. The infectious dose of Cryptosporidium varies by several orders of magnitude by strain, and repeated low-level exposure in drinking water may be protective. Some people may be innately immune to Norwalk-like virus, despite multiple exposures. A major risk factor for E. coli O157:H7 infection is exposure to shallow groundwater sources contaminated with animal waste.
Modeling metamorphism in collisional orogens intruded by magmas: I. Thermal evolution

This paper presents the results of two-dimensional (2-D) numerical modeling that reconstructs the thermal evolution and the flow of fluid in a collisional overthrust setting with syn-metamorphic magmatism. The goal of the study is to explore the relationships between regional metamorphism and magmatic activity. Our results demonstrate the strong effects that syn-metamorphic magmatism exerts on the thermal structure of the thickened crust. Magmatic intrusions in the form of repetitive sills of mafic or intermediate-felsic compositions introduced at different levels in the thickened crust section may produce Buchan and Barrovian-type metamorphic sequences, as well as rocks in the granulite facies of metamorphism. The peak temperatures in crustal rocks around intrusions are increased by more than 100 °C from their values for the non-magmatic case; the timescales of peak temperature attainment in rocks at short distances from the intrusions are only 1 Myr or less. The peak temperature attainment is synchronous within the different metamorphic zones over the depth range of up to 20 km. These features differ strongly from those in the overthrust model without magmatism, characterized by broad thermal peaks spanning 5 to 10 Myr and non-synchronous attainment of peak conditions for rocks at different depths, with ∼5 Myr delay for every 10 km of depth (exhumation rate = 1 mm yr−1). The specific peak metamorphic mineral assemblages that develop in model rock of metapelitic composition as a result of magmatism are largely controlled by the depth of magma emplacement: intrusion into the lower plate of the overthrust zone leads to the development of amphibolite facies mineral assemblages in the staurolite, kyanite and garnet-biotite (without chlorite) zones, as well as considerable volumes of granulite facies rocks. Emplacement of intrusions at mid-crustal depths of 15 to 35 km produces minerals of low-pressure/high-temperature (LP/HT) metamorphic zones, such as cordierite-biotite-K-feldspar, in addition to staurolite, kyanite, and sillimanite zones. When mid-crustal magmatism is initiated at earlier times in the model thrust exhumation history, the LP/HT metamorphic zones may not be preserved in the crustal section due to surface erosion. All of the models predict extremely steep, approximately isobaric Metamorphic Field Temperature Gradients (MFTGs) around the edges of the intrusions and along the contacts of thick isolated sills. In some cases, the transition from chlorite to sillimanite zones of metamorphism at the side of the magmatic region may take place in less than 1 km. The magmatism-related MFTGs stand in contrast to the regional metamorphic gradients produced by crustal thickening that form at the flanks of the overthrust zone distal to the magmas. Here, the transition from the chlorite zone to high-grade mineral assemblages takes place over 20 to 40 km, and the pressure of peak temperature attainment increases by as much as 0.3 GPa from low to high grade.
The Serial Commutator FFT

This brief presents a new type of fast Fourier transform (FFT) hardware architectures called serial commutator (SC) FFT. The SC FFT is characterized by the use of circuits for bit-dimension permutation of serial data. The proposed architectures are based on the observation that, in the radix-2 FFT algorithm, only half of the samples at each stage must be rotated. This fact, together with a proper data management, makes it possible to allocate rotations only every other clock cycle. This allows for simplifying the rotator, halving the complexity with respect to conventional serial FFT architectures. Likewise, the proposed approach halves the number of adders in the butterflies with respect to previous architectures. As a result, the proposed architectures use the minimum number of adders, rotators, and memory that are necessary for a pipelined FFT of serial data, with 100% utilization ratio.
Identification of novel positive allosteric modulators and null modulators at the GABAA receptor α+β− interface

GABAA receptors are the major inhibitory neurotransmitter receptors in the mammalian brain and the target of many clinically important drugs interacting with different binding sites. Recently, we demonstrated that CGS 9895 (2‐(4‐methoxyphenyl)‐2H‐pyrazolo[4,3‐c]quinolin‐3(5H)‐one) acts as a null modulator (antagonist) at the high affinity benzodiazepine binding site, but in addition elicits a strong enhancement of GABA‐induced currents via a novel drug binding site at the extracellular α+β− interface. Here, we investigated 32 structural analogues of CGS 9895 for their ability to mediate their effects via the α1+β3− interface of GABAA receptors.
Rotte : International Interventionism 1970-1989 : A Count Data

Due to progress in statistical methods and improved data processing capabilities, count data modelling has become increasingly popular in the social sciences. In empirical international relations and international conflict research, however, the use of event count models has been largely restricted to the application of the simple Poisson approach so far. This article outlines the methodological weaknesses of the model and presents some improvements which are applied to the problem of international interventionism. The cross-sectional data set used covers the behaviour of states during the period from 1970 to 1989, and thus avoids some theoretical problems of the standard long-term dyadic approach. The main result of the analysis is the empirical irrelevance of idealist conceptions claiming pacifying effects of democratization or fostering of economic prosperity. JEL classification: C25, H56, H77
Customer Satisfaction and Switching Barriers: Effects on Repurchase Intentions, Positive Recommendations, and Price Tolerance1

The current article attempts to extend previous research by testing the effects of customer satisfaction and 2 types of switching barriers—negative and positive—on key manifestations of attitudinal loyalty (repurchase intentions, positive recommendations, and price tolerance). The work also studies whether the effect of customer satisfaction is linear or nonlinear. Finally, the paper analyzes whether switching barriers moderate the relative strength of the customer satisfaction/attitudinal loyalty relation. To this end, a total of 554 private mobile-phone customers were surveyed. The distinction between negative and positive switching barriers is important to draw theoretical and managerial implications.
Design and Production of Active Cellulosome Chimeras

Defined chimeric cellulosomes were produced in which selected enzymes were incorporated in specific locations within a multicomponent complex. The molecular building blocks of this approach are based on complementary protein modules from the cellulosomes of two clostridia, Clostridium thermocellum and Clostridium cellulolyticum, wherein cellulolytic enzymes are incorporated into the complexes by means of high-affinity species-specific cohesin-dockerin interactions. To construct the desired complexes, a series of chimeric scaffoldins was prepared by recombinant means. The scaffoldin chimeras were designed to include two cohesin modules from the different species, optionally connected to a cellulose-binding domain. The two divergent cohesins exhibited distinct specificities such that each recognized selectively and bound strongly to its dockerin counterpart. Using this strategy, appropriate dockerin-containing enzymes could be assembled precisely and by design into a desired complex. Compared with the mixture of free cellulases, the resultant cellulosome chimeras exhibited enhanced synergistic action on crystalline cellulose.
A case control and family based association study of the neuregulin1 gene and schizophrenia

Data from twin, family, and adoption studies provide strong evidence that genetic factors play a major aetiological role in schizophrenia. By a series of linkage studies, chromosome 8p has been implicated as a region harbouring a schizophrenia susceptibility gene.1–4 Recently, Stefansson and colleagues reported that neuregulin 1 (NRG1 ), located in 8p21-12, may be involved in the aetiology of schizophrenia.4,5 In their linkage and association studies, a 290 kb core at risk haplotype at the 5′ end of NRG1 was found to be strongly associated with schizophrenia in Icelandic and Scottish populations. This haplotype contains the first exon of NRG1 , which encodes a part of glial growth factor 2 ( GGF2 ). Deficiency of glial growth factors has been presumed to be implicated in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia.6 Futhermore, NRG1 mutant mice have fewer functional N-methyl D-aspartate(NMDA) receptors than wild type mice, and display stereotypic behavioural abnormalities similar to those of normal mice treated with the psychogenic drug phenylcyclidine.4 This core at risk haplotype was defined by five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP8NRG221132, SNP8NRG221533, SNP8NRG241930, SNP8NRG243177, SNP8NRG433E1006) and two microsatellites (478B14-848, 420M91395). The frequency of this haplotype in schizophrenic individuals was higher than in controls; in Icelandic samples the frequency was 15.4 (7.5%; p = 0.000087). 4 The first replication using Scottish samples revealed a similar result at 10.2 (5.9%; p = 0.00031). 5 Another replication performed by Williams et al with British or Irish samples used one SNP and the two microsatellites of the core at risk haplotype. However, the association was much weaker at 9.5 (7.5%; p = 0.04). 7 Yang et al reported other markers located in the middle of NRG1 and associated with schizophrenia, in a Chinese population.8 Another independent analysis using 13 microsatellites found two groups of haplotypes, which were significantly …
Ancient, recurrent phage attacks and recombination shaped dynamic sequence-variable mosaics at the root of phytoplasma genome evolution

Mobile genetic elements have impacted biological evolution across all studied organisms, but evidence for a role in evolutionary emergence of an entire phylogenetic clade has not been forthcoming. We suggest that mobile element predation played a formative role in emergence of the phytoplasma clade. Phytoplasmas are cell wall-less bacteria that cause numerous diseases in plants. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that these transkingdom parasites descended from Gram-positive walled bacteria, but events giving rise to the first phytoplasma have remained unknown. Previously we discovered a unique feature of phytoplasmal genome architecture, genes clustered in sequence-variable mosaics (SVMs), and suggested that such structures formed through recurrent, targeted attacks by mobile elements. In the present study, we discovered that cryptic prophage remnants, originating from phages in the order Caudovirales, formed SVMs and comprised exceptionally large percentages of the chromosomes of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma asteris’-related strains OYM and AYWB, occupying nearly all major nonsyntenic sections, and accounting for most of the size difference between the two genomes. The clustered phage remnants formed genomic islands exhibiting distinct DNA physical signatures, such as dinucleotide relative abundance and codon position GC values. Phytoplasma strain-specific genes identified as phage morons were located in hypervariable regions within individual SVMs, indicating that prophage remnants played important roles in generating phytoplasma genetic diversity. Because no SVM-like structures could be identified in genomes of ancestral relatives including Acholeplasma spp. , we hypothesize that ancient phage attacks leading to SVM formation occurred after divergence of phytoplasmas from acholeplasmas, triggering evolution of the phytoplasma clade.
Comorbidities and cardiovascular risk factors in patients with psoriasis*

BACKGROUND Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease and its pathogenesis involves an interaction between genetic, environmental, and immunological factors. Recent studies have suggested that the chronic inflammatory nature of psoriasis may predispose to an association with other inflammatory diseases, especially cardiovascular diseases and metabolic disorders. OBJECTIVES To describe the demographic, clinical, epidemiological, and laboratory characteristics of a sample of psoriasis patients; to assess the prevalence of cardiovascular comorbidities in this group of patients; and to identify the cardiovascular risk profile using the Framingham risk score. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional study involving the assessment of 190 patients. Participants underwent history and physical examination. They also completed a specific questionnaire about epidemiological data, past medical history, and comorbidities. The cardiovascular risk profile was calculated using the Framingham risk score. RESULTS Patients' mean age was 51.5 ± 14 years, and the predominant clinical presentation was plaque psoriasis (78.4%). We found an increased prevalence of systemic hypertension, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and obesity. Increased waist circumference was also found in addition to a considerable prevalence of depression, smoking, and regular alcohol intake. Patients' cardiovascular risk was high according to the Framingham risk score, and 47.2% of patients had moderate or high risk of fatal and non-fatal coronary events in 10 years. CONCLUSIONS Patients had high prevalence of cardiovascular comorbidities, and high cardiovascular risk according to the Framingham risk score. Further epidemiological studies are needed in Brazil for validation of our results.
Both cancerous miR‐21 and stromal miR‐21 in urothelial carcinoma are related to tumour progression

Urothelial carcinoma (UC) is a globally common cancer. miR‐21 appears to be important in the tumorigenesis of almost all types of human cancer. However, its precise localization and significance in UC have yet to be clarified. The aim of this study was to examine miR‐21 expression in UC and reveal its clinicopathological importance.