Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Circadian Timekeeping Is Disturbed in Rheumatoid Arthritis at Molecular Level

Introduction Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have disturbances in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. These are reflected in altered circadian rhythm of circulating serum cortisol, melatonin and IL-6 levels and in chronic fatigue. We hypothesized that the molecular machinery responsible for the circadian timekeeping is perturbed in RA. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of circadian clock in RA. Methods Gene expression of thirteen clock genes was analyzed in the synovial membrane of RA and control osteoarthritis (OA) patients. BMAL1 protein was detected using immunohistochemistry. Cell autonomous clock oscillation was started in RA and OA synovial fibroblasts using serum shock. The effect of pro-inflammatory stimulus on clock gene expression in synovial fibroblasts was studied using IL-6 and TNF-α. Results Gene expression analysis disclosed disconcerted circadian timekeeping and immunohistochemistry revealed strong cytoplasmic localization of BMAL1 in RA patients. Perturbed circadian timekeeping is at least in part inflammation independent and cell autonomous, because RA synovial fibroblasts display altered circadian expression of several clock components, and perturbed circadian production of IL-6 and IL-1β after clock resetting. However, inflammatory stimulus disturbs the rhythm in cultured fibroblasts. Throughout the experiments ARNTL2 and NPAS2 appeared to be the most affected clock genes in human immune-inflammatory conditions. Conclusion We conclude that the molecular machinery controlling the circadian rhythm is disturbed in RA patients.
Positive human health effects of wearing a respirator in a swine barn.

STUDY OBJECTIVES A study was conducted to evaluate the acute health effects of wearing an N-95 disposable respirator in a swine confinement facility. DESIGN A crossover trial design was used in the study. SETTING The study was carried out at the research facilities of the Centre for Agricultural Medicine, the Royal University Hospital, and the Prairie Swine Centre Inc, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. PARTICIPANTS Twenty-one nonsmoking healthy male subjects with no previous swine barn exposure participated in the study. INTERVENTIONS The subjects participated in a laboratory session (baseline day), a 4-h exposure in a traditional swine room wearing the respirator (intervention day), and a 4-hour exposure in a traditional swine room without a respirator (nonintervention day). MEASUREMENTS Lung function, methacholine challenge tests, blood counts, nasal lavage, and cytokines in serum and nasal lavage fluid. RESULTS Mean (+/- SE) shift change in FEV(1), from preexposure to postexposure, was highest on nonintervention day (-8.1+/-1.01%) and was significantly different from intervention day (0.32+/-0.62%; p<0.0001) and baseline day (1.57+/-0.51%; p<0.0001). Similar patterns were observed in the mean values of the provocative concentration of a substance (methacholine) causing a 20% fall in FEV(1) (nonintervention day, 130.4+/-36.9 mg/mL; intervention day, 242.0+/-38.0 mg/mL; and baseline day, 328.0 mg/mL +/-34.1 mg/mL). Significant increases in serum neutrophil levels and nasal cell counts were observed on the nonintervention day in comparison to the baseline and intervention days. Significant increases also were found in the levels of cytokines interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8 in nasal lavage fluid and in the levels of IL-6 in serum for the nonintervention day in comparison to the other 2 days. CONCLUSIONS The results demonstrate that an N-95 disposable respirator can help to significantly reduce acute negative health effects in subjects not previously exposed to a swine barn environment.
Generating change from below: what role for leadership from above?

In recent years the benefits of distributed leadership have often assumed the status of an unchallengeable orthodoxy. There is a general acceptance that leadership is best when it is dispersed. In reality this is often little more than a form of ‘licensed leadership’ in which those working in subordinate roles can only exercise their leadership in tightly prescribed contexts. This article investigates the contribution of teacher professional development to promoting a more optimistic vision of teacher leadership and, ultimately, organisational change. It explores the role of leadership ‘from above’ in supporting classroom teachers to engage with and sustain change. The study, which was situated in the Republic of Ireland, employed a case study approach with 20 participants in five urban disadvantaged schools. The article seeks to demonstrate how a professional development initiative was used to promote significant and sustained change in four of the five case study schools. It argues that in order to understand sustained change in schools it is necessary to better understand the complex ways in which leadership from above can generate change agency from below. This article offers a critical perspective in relation to mainstream distributed leadership theory and practice.
Effects of hospitalist attending physicians on trainee satisfaction with teaching and with internal medicine rotations.

BACKGROUND Hospitalists are increasingly serving as inpatient attendings at teaching hospitals. The educational impact of this new model is unclear. We evaluated the relationship between type of attending (hospitalist vs traditional) and trainees' ratings of attending teaching and the overall ward rotation. METHODS We analyzed data from a Web-based evaluation system containing all house staff and student evaluations of their attendings and internal medicine ward rotations at 2 university-affiliated teaching hospitals over a 2-year period (1999-2001). RESULTS The overall evaluation completion rate was 91% (1587 of 1742 evaluations) by trainees working with 17 hospitalists and 52 traditional attendings. Trainees reported significantly more overall satisfaction with hospitalists than traditional attendings (8.3 vs 8.0 on a 9-point scale; P<.001) and rated hospitalists' overall teaching effectiveness as superior (4.8 vs 4.5 on a 5-point scale; P<.001). Perceived overall educational value of rotations was higher with hospitalist attendings (3.9 vs 3.7 on a 5-point scale; P =.04). Trainees evaluated hospitalists' knowledge, teaching, and feedback as superior to that of traditional attendings. There were no significant differences in reports of attendings' interest in teaching or patients, availability, or emphasis on cost-effectiveness. CONCLUSIONS Trainees reported more effective teaching and more satisfying inpatient rotations when supervised by hospitalists. This analysis suggests that hospitalists may possess or accrue a specific inpatient knowledge base and teaching skill that distinguishes them from nonhospitalists.
The Higher Education Act and Minority Serving Institutions: Towards a Typology of Title III and V Funded Programs

To date, there has been little analysis of MSI Title III and V grant-funded programs across all MSI categories. For researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, it is imperative to explore the contributions of MSIs as manifested in Title III and V grant-funded programs. The purpose of this study is to analyze MSI Title III and V programs based on project abstracts. This study is driven by three research questions: How have MSIs used their Title III and V grants? What are the expressed outcomes of MSI grant funding? Using restricted-use data obtained from the U.S. Department of Education, NCES IPEDS, and the Office of Postsecondary Education, this study uses a quantitative content analysis strategy to respond to the research questions in ways that can help stakeholders begin to understand the impact of the federal grant on MSIs.
Current Status and Future Directions

Comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation is more than exercise training for patients with coronary artery disease and now includes all aspects of secondary prevention. Exercise training is individually prescribed based on clinical status and therapeutic goals. Smoking cessation and abstinence and the treatment of hypercholesterolemia are integral to the rehabilitation process. Education and counseling are important adjuncts to treatment, especially soon after a coronary event. Vocational rehabilitation can be included simply and effectively in the rehabilitation process. Efficient and cost-effective cardiac rehabilitation is tailored to a patient's medical condition, risk factor evaluation, and vocational status. The future of cardiac rehabilitation will be linked to the success of training nonphysician health professionals to provide preventive services.
Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease, Metabolic Syndrome and Sleepiness in Truck Drivers

Background Truck driver sleepiness is a primary cause of vehicle accidents. Several causes are associated with sleepiness in truck drivers. Obesity and metabolic syndrome (MetS) are associated with sleep disorders and with primary risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD). We analyzed the relationship between these conditions and prevalence of sleepiness in truck drivers. Methods We analyzed the major risk factors for CVD, anthropometric data and sleep disorders in 2228 male truck drivers from 148 road stops made by the Federal Highway Police from 2006 to 2011. Alcohol consumption, illicit drugs and overtime working hours were also analyzed. Sleepiness was assessed using the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. Results Mean age was 43.1 ± 10.8 years. From 2006 to 2011, an increase in neck (p = 0.011) and abdominal circumference (p < 0.001), total cholesterol (p < 0.001), triglyceride plasma levels (p = 0.014), and sleepiness was observed (p < 0.001). In addition, a reduction in hypertension (39.6% to 25.9%, p < 0.001), alcohol consumption (32% to 23%, p = 0.033) and overtime hours (52.2% to 42.8%, p < 0.001) was found. Linear regression analysis showed that sleepiness correlated closely with body mass index (β = 0.19, Raj2 = 0.659, p = 0.031), abdominal circumference (β = 0.24, Raj2 = 0.826, p = 0.021), hypertension (β = -0.62, Raj2 = 0.901, p = 0.002), and triglycerides (β = 0.34, Raj2 = 0.936, p = 0.022). Linear multiple regression indicated that hypertension (p = 0.008) and abdominal circumference (p = 0.025) are independent variables for sleepiness. Conclusions Increased prevalence of sleepiness was associated with major components of the MetS.
Selection of aptamers for a protein target in cell lysate and their application to protein purification

Functional genomics requires structural and functional studies of a large number of proteins. While the production of proteins through over-expression in cultured cells is a relatively routine procedure, the subsequent protein purification from the cell lysate often represents a significant challenge. The most direct way of protein purification from a cell lysate is affinity purification using an affinity probe to the target protein. It is extremely difficult to develop antibodies, classical affinity probes, for a protein in the cell lysate; their development requires a pure protein. Thus, isolating the protein from the cell lysate requires antibodies, while developing antibodies requires a pure protein. Here we resolve this loop problem. We introduce AptaPIC, Aptamer-facilitated Protein Isolation from Cells, a technology that integrates (i) the development of aptamers for a protein in cell lysate and (ii) the utilization of the developed aptamers for protein isolation from the cell lysate. Using MutS protein as a target, we demonstrate that this technology is applicable to the target protein being at an expression level as low as 0.8% of the total protein in the lysate. AptaPIC has the potential to considerably speed up the purification of proteins and, thus, accelerate their structural and functional studies.
Applying distances between terms to both flat and hierarchical data

Terms are the basis for functional and logic programming representations. In turn, functional and logic programming can be used for knowledge representation in a variety of applications (knowledgebased systems, data mining, etc.). Distances between terms provide a very useful tool to compare terms and arrange the search space in many of these applications. However, distances between terms have special features which have precluded them from being used for other datatypes, such as hierarchical data or propositional data. In this paper, we explore the use of distances between terms in different scenarios: propositional data using the names of the attributes to construct the term tree (hierarchy), deriving the term tree by using attribute similarity and, finally, functional data representing hierarchies. In order to do this, we perform transformations from the original data representation to XML, thus allowing the use of term distances to directly handle objects of different degrees of ‘hierarchisation’, from flat data to fully hierarchical data.
Women's Safety on Campus: Challenging the University as Gendered Space

The past decade has witnessed increasing documentation of the ways in which universities continue to marginalize women. As Rigby-Ledwitz (1993) observes, because most Canadian universities were designed without women in mind, the more successful they become in recruiting women and providing them access to education and career opportunities, the more deficient their facilities suddenly appear. Deficiencies are manifest as curriculum which renders women invisible, behavioural codes which devalue women as university participants, and built environments which are uninviting for women. Together, these cultural and architectural factors constitute a 'chilly climate' for women (Sandler 1982). Although I have spent almost two decades on university campuses, as both a student and a faculty member, my political involvement in campus safety grew out of discussions with my undergraduate students, not my personal experiences. This process of involvement reminded me not simply of how quickly faculty can distance themselves from their experiences as students, but also of the way in which many female faculty, like myself, repress concerns for personal safety in order to participate in academic life. Thinking about the university as a 'community,' rather than a place of learning or work detached from the concerns and practices of everyday life, makes the lack of research on universities a curious omission. One purpose of this paper, therefore, is to challenge this silence. It is not surprising that the discussions which prompted the survey described below were raised in a women's studies class. These discussions heightened my awareness of a gap between an administrative discourse on campus safety which corresponds to official counts of crime on campus and to the experiences of administrators who are, for the large part, middle-aged white males, and one
A new perspective on Twitter hashtag use: Diffusion of innovation theory

Twitter is a fast growing real-time social media tool. As Twitter evolves, more and more people are partaking in sharing what is happening around the world through various Twitter applications. Hashtag use has become a unique tagging convention to help associate Twitter messages with certain events or contexts. Prefixed by a # symbol with a keyword, a Twitter hashtag serves as a bottom-up user-proposed tagging convention. It also embodies user participation in the process of hashtag innovation, especially as it pertains to information organization tasks. Diffusion of innovation (DoI) is a theory that helps to explain the adoption process of an innovation by modeling its entire life cycle according to the aspects of communications and human information interactions. Hence, diffusion theory offers valuable insights into interface design that supports Twitter hashtag use and access. It also assists in evaluating hashtag life cycles and thus offering information required for decision-making, in regard to hashtag management.
Suicide attempts during heavy drinking episodes among individuals entering alcohol treatment in Warsaw, Poland.

AIMS Acute alcohol intoxication itself may act as a trigger for suicidal thoughts and attempts among individuals at risk and may influence the potential lethality of the suicide attempt. This study in alcohol-dependent patients compared the correlates of suicide attempts during a heavy drinking episode with those of suicide attempts during relative sobriety. METHODS In two outpatient and two residential alcohol treatment programs in Warsaw, Poland, 113 patients who reported a suicide attempt during their lifetime were interviewed. The analyses focused on the patients' most serious suicide attempts and on whether these occurred during a heavy drinking episode. RESULTS Over two-thirds of the patients reported that their most serious suicide attempt occurred during a period of heavy drinking. A multivariable logistic model indicated that the following factors significantly distinguished those patients whose most serious suicide attempt occurred during a heavy drinking episode: male gender, younger current age, greater severity of alcohol dependence and the attempt being unplanned. CONCLUSION Among the patients in treatment for alcohol dependence who made a suicide attempt, the most serious attempt was likely to have been unplanned and committed by men when it occurred during a heavy drinking episode.
The Internet and socio-economic development: exploring the interaction

This article attempts to gain an understanding of the current and potential impact of the Internet on the four‐fifths of the world’s population living in developing countries, two‐thirds of them poor. First, it attempts to put today’s rapid advances in information and communication technology in a broader debate about development and the role of information. Next, it explores the interaction between the Internet and key dimensions of development. Finally, it discusses some key policy implications of Internet diffusion and usage which governments of developing countries will have to address. These include an increasing role for intermediary institutions in the creation and dissemination of relevant knowledge on the Internet in order that the technology is used in a way that is compatible with local development goals.
Calling for leadership: leadership relation with worker’s sense of calling

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the relation between leadership perception and workers’ sense of calling. Design/methodology/approach Workers’ sense of calling has been shown to relate to organizational outcomes such as job satisfaction, career development, personal growth, and well-being. Although recent studies point the sense of calling as a consequent of several organizational variables, the role of leadership in promoting workers’ sense of calling is yet to be analyzed. A self-report questionnaire was applied to a group of 325 Portuguese nurses to analyze this relation. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the results. Findings Results indicate a positive relation between a leader perceived as transformational or transactional and workers’ sense of calling. Directive and empowering leadership perception were found not to be related to calling. Unexpectedly, a significant positive relation with aversive leadership perception was identified. Research limitations/implications A confounding relation between aversive leadership perception and sense of calling cannot be excluded. It is possible that an unknown third variable, such as resilience or positive affect, is serving as a mediating bridge between leadership perception and the sense of calling. Further studies are necessary in order to explore this alternative path. Originality/value The sense of calling is known as a relevant organizational construct. Knowing what kinds of leadership promote workers’ sense of calling adds value for the literature and can help managers to learn how to improve their followers’ sense of calling.
L EARNING LINEARLY SEPARABLE FEATURES FOR SPEECH RECOGNITION USING CONVOLUTIONAL NEURAL NETWORKS

Automatic speech recognition systems usually rely on spectral-based features, such as MFCC of PLP. These features are extracted based on prior knowledge such as, speech perception or/and speech production. Recently, convolutional neural networks have been shown to be able to estimate phoneme conditional probabilities in a completely data-driven manner, i.e. using directly temporal raw speech signal as input. This system was shown to yield similar or better performance than HMM/ANN based system on phoneme recognition task and on large scale continuous speech recognition task, using less parameters. Motivated by these studies, we investigate the use of simple linear classifier in the CNN-based framework. Thus, the network learns linearly separable features from raw speech. We show that such system yields similar or better performance than MLP based system using cepstral-based features as input.
The Role Of Motivational Factors In Distributed Software Development Teams: An Empirical Investigation

Distributed teams are found extensively in today’s globalized software development industry. Collaboration in such teams is based mostly on electronic communication. The limitations in terms of feedback and interaction in general, as well as aspects such as the isolation of team members or subgroups, have the potential to create motivational challenges and can therefore affect team performance. According to the social psychological VIST model, four factors determine the motivation level of members of distributed teams: Valence, Instrumentality, Self-efficacy, and Trust. This study examines the role of motivational factors in distributed software teams. We apply the VIST model for the first time in the context of distributed software development teams. In a global online survey, data about the VIST factors, individual motivation, and team success were collected from 206 software development professionals. Using structural equation modelling, our analysis confirms that the VIST factors in general and interpersonal Trust and Instrumentality in particular do influence individual motivation to a significant degree and that individual motivation in turn significantly influences team success. We conclude that it is worthwhile for future research on distributed software development, as well as managers in practice, to consider the VIST factors and take actions to influence them in a positive manner.
Dysfunction in Fatty Acid Amide Hydrolase Is Associated with Depressive-Like Behavior in Wistar Kyoto Rats

Background While the etiology of depression is not clearly understood at the present time, this mental disorder is thought be a complex and multifactorial trait with important genetic and environmental contributing factors. Methodology/Principal Findings The role of the endocannabinoid (eCB) system in depressive behavior was examined in Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rat strain, a genetic model of depression. Our findings revealed selective abnormalities in the eCB system in the brains of WKY rats compared to Wistar (WIS) rats. Immunoblot analysis indicated significantly higher levels of fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) in frontal cortex and hippocampus of WKY rats with no alteration in the level of N-arachidonyl phosphatidyl ethanolamine specific phospholipase-D (NAPE-PLD). Significantly higher levels of CB1 receptor-mediated G-protein coupling and lower levels of anandamide (AEA) were found in frontal cortex and hippocampus of WKY rats. While the levels of brain derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) were significantly lower in frontal cortex and hippocampus of WKY rats compared to WIS rats, pharmacological inhibition of FAAH elevated BDNF levels in WKY rats. Inhibition of FAAH enzyme also significantly increased sucrose consumption and decreased immobility in the forced swim test in WKY rats. Conclusions/Significance These findings suggest a critical role for the eCB system and BDNF in the genetic predisposition to depressive-like behavior in WKY rats and point to the potential therapeutic utility of eCB enhancing agents in depressive disorder.