Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Apoptosis plays an important role in experimental rabies virus infection

Cultured rat prostatic adenocarcinoma (AT3) cells infected with the challenge virus standard (CVS) strain of fixed rabies virus showed characteristic morphologic features of apoptosis, evidence of oligonucleosomal DNA fragmentation, and expression of the Bax protein. CVS-infected Bcl-2-transfected AT3 cells did not demonstrate these features. Adult ICR mice inoculated intracerebrally with CVS showed morphologic changes of apoptosis, DNA fragmentation, and increased Bax expression in neurons, with changes most marked in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex. Ultrastructurally, some neurons demonstrated morphologic features more typical of necrosis. These studies provide evidence that apoptosis plays an important role in the pathogenesis of rabies virus infection.
γ-Secretase Composed of PS1/Pen2/Aph1a Can Cleave Notch and Amyloid Precursor Protein in the Absence of Nicastrin

γ-Secretase is a multiprotein, intramembrane-cleaving protease with a growing list of protein substrates, including the Notch receptors and the amyloid precursor protein. The four components of γ-secretase complex—presenilin (PS), nicastrin (NCT), Pen2, and Aph1—are all thought to be essential for activity. The catalytic domain resides within PS proteins, NCT has been suggested to be critical for substrate recognition, and the contributions of Pen2 and Aph1 remain unclear. The role of NCT has been challenged recently by the observation that a critical residue (E332) in NCT, which had been thought to be essential for γ-secretase activity, is instead involved in complex maturation. Here, we report that NCT is dispensable for γ-secretase activity. NCT-independent γ-secretase activity can be detected in two independent NCT-deficient mouse embryonic fibroblast lines and blocked by the γ-secretase inhibitors N-[N-(3,5-difluorophenacetyl-l-alanyl)]-S-phenylglycine t-butyl ester and L-685,458. This catalytic activity requires prior ectodomain shedding of the substrate and can cleave ligand-activated endogenous Notch receptors, indicating presence of this activity at the plasma membrane. Small interfering RNA knockdown experiments demonstrated that NCT-independent γ-secretase activity requires the presence of PS1, Pen2, and Aph1a but can tolerate knockdown of PS2 or Aph1b. We conclude that a PS1/Pen2/Aph1a trimeric complex is an active enzyme, displaying biochemical properties similar to those of γ-secretase and roughly 50% of its activity when normalized to PS1 N-terminal fragment levels. This PS1/Pen2/Aph1a complex, however, is highly unstable. Thus, NCT acts to stabilize γ-secretase but is not required for substrate recognition.
Evolution of Game Demands From Young to Elite Players in Men's Volleyball.

PURPOSE To assess the evolution of the volleyball's game demands throughout players' development in men's volleyball. METHODS A total of 150 sets and 6.671 rallies were analyzed. The sample was composed of 30 sets each by under-14, under-16, under-19, national senior, and international senior teams (1.291, 1.318, 1.310, 1.372, and 1.380 rallies for each category, respectively). Sets included in the sample were stratified and then randomly selected. The variables studied included play time, rest time, rallies played, jumps, hits, types of ball contact, types of game interruptions, performance of the game phases, and performance of the actions. Student t and Mann Whitney U tests were used to analyze specific differences between categories. RESULTS The results showed significant reductions in the play times of the rally (from 8.91 to 6.79 s) and the set (6 min 23 s to 4 min 30 s), significant increases in the rest times of the rally (19.64 to 26.53 s) and the set (13 min 44 s to 20 min 27 s), and a significant increase in the number of jumps per set (113.5 to 181.3). Significant improvements in the reception performance (1.57 to 2.45 out of 3), attack performance (2.13 to 2.67 out of 4), and side-out-phase success (48.4% to 69.6%) were found. Throughout the players' development, data show an increase in the speed, intensity, and efficacy of the side-out phase. CONCLUSIONS The findings provide reference values to guide athletes' development and to monitor training and matches both physically and technically tactically.
A new Swedish social attitude scale: Reliability and construct validity

The aim was to construct an updated and balanced version of a previous Swedish social attitude scale (Sidanius, 1976), and to assess the reliability and construct validity, employing a sample of 445 students, aged 14–17, from schools within metropolitan Stockholm. The results showed acceptable precision and internal consistency and reasonably high test-retest reliability for the scale as a whole. The a priori attitude domains (political-economic conservatism, religion, punitiveness, social inequality, ethnocentrism, and environment) were identified through use of confirmatory factor analysis. Most domains showed acceptable reliability. Differing results for the various age groups indicated that the present version of the scale should not be used among subjects below the age of 15.
Relation Between Negative Affectivity and Positive Affectivity: Effects of Judged Desirability of Scale Items and Respondents' Social Desirability

Two major measures of negative affectivity (NA) and positive affectivity (PA), developed from the theory of independent affect, are examined. It was found in Study 1 that NA and PA items tended to be judged either very undesirable or desirable when describing people in general. Study 2 revealed that there is a strong positive relation between item desirability and the probability of endorsing the item. Furthermore, the hypothesis that the NA-PA relation varies as a function of respondents' social desirability (SD) is generally supported across measures by means of subgroup comparison and moderated regression analysis. Specifically, there was a moderately strong PA-NA relation only in the group with high SD. The relation is weaker, however, in the group with low SD. Potential reasons why NA and PA are related and unrelated under different conditions are discussed.
Somali immigrant youths and the power of print literacy

This article examines some of the ways in which the politics of a written script are enacted among Somali refugees and immigrants in present-day schools and classrooms. Analysis focuses on data gathered with Somali youths in one all-immigrant high school classroom in the US. Data are examined to illustrate how global processes, some of which have developed across timescales of multiple decades, including the decision about a Somali script, the Somali civil war(s) and the rise of Somali Diaspora, play out in everyday classroom interactions. Here we extend the academic conversation about the cognitive and educational benefit of home language literacy and schooling when learning a new language by exploring the dynamic relationship between the symbolic power of Somali print literacy on the one hand, and current classroom practices and informal policies on the other. These findings illustrate how the history of the Somali script, differential access to formal schooling along gender lines and the benefit of having print literacy in Somali play out in everyday interactions at school. We document ways in which Somali print literacy is integral to how Somali adolescents see themselves and others as learners and individuals.
A Pragmatist Theory of Social Mechanisms

Some sociologists have recently argued that a major aim of sociological inquiry is to identify the mechanisms by which cause and effect relationships in the social world come about. This article argues that existing accounts of social mechanisms are problematic because they rest on either inadequately developed or questionable understandings of social action. Building on an insight increasingly common among sociological theorists—that action should be conceptualized in terms of social practices—I mobilize ideas from the tradition of classical American pragmatism to develop a more adequate theory of mechanisms. I identify three kinds of analytical problems the theory is especially well poised to address and then lay out an agenda for future research.
Modification of some biological properties of HeLa cells containing adeno-associated virus DNA integrated into chromosome 17

Parvoviruses are known to interfere with cellular transformation and carcinogenesis. Since infecting adeno-associated virus (AAV) frequently integrates its DNA into the cellular genome, we analyzed whether this integration influences the transformed phenotype of the human tumor cell line HeLa. Analysis of three independent HeLa cell clones with integrated AAV DNA (HA-3x, HA-16, and HA-28) revealed the following phenotypic changes of these cells: (i) reduced growth rate, (ii) increased serum requirement, (iii) reduced capacity for colony formation in soft agar, (iv) reduced cloning efficiency on plastic, (v) elevated sensitivity to genotoxic agents (N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine, 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene, human tumor necrosis factor alpha, UV irradiation [256 nm], and heat [42 degrees C]), and (vi) reduced sensitivity to the cytolytic effect of parvovirus H-1. Reduced growth rate and enhanced sensitivity to gamma irradiation were also observed in vivo when tumors from AAV DNA-containing HeLa cells were transplanted into nude mice. This alteration of the biological properties of HeLa cells was independent of the number of AAV genomes integrated, the physical structure of integrated AAV DNA, and the transcription of AAV genes. Integration of AAV DNA was found to occur preferentially on the long arm of chromosome 17 in the three HeLa cell clones analyzed. These findings demonstrate that genomic integration of AAV DNA can alter the biological properties of human tumor cells.
Who, Where, When, and What

Micro-blogging services and location-based social networks, such as Twitter, Weibo, and Foursquare, enable users to post short messages with timestamps and geographical annotations. The rich spatial-temporal-semantic information of individuals embedded in these geo-annotated short messages provides exciting opportunity to develop many context-aware applications in ubiquitous computing environments. Example applications include contextual recommendation and contextual search. To obtain accurate recommendations and most relevant search results, it is important to capture users’ contextual information (e.g., time and location) and to understand users’ topical interests and intentions. While time and location can be readily captured by smartphones, understanding user’s interests and intentions calls for effective methods in modeling user mobility behavior. Here, user mobility refers to who visits which place at what time for what activity. That is, user mobility behavior modeling must consider user (Who), spatial (Where), temporal (When), and activity (What) aspects. Unfortunately, no previous studies on user mobility behavior modeling have considered all of the four aspects jointly, which have complex interdependencies. In our preliminary study, we propose the first solution named W4 (short for Who, Where, When, and What) to discover user mobility behavior from the four aspects. In this article, we further enhance W4 and propose a nonparametric Bayesian model named EW4 (short for Enhanced W4). EW4 requires no parameter tuning and achieves better results over W4 in our experiments. Given some of the four aspects of a user (e.g., time), our model is able to infer information of the other aspects (e.g., location and topical words). Thus, our model has a variety of context-aware applications, particularly in contextual search and recommendation. Experimental results on two real-world datasets show that the proposed model is effective in discovering users’ spatial-temporal topics. The model also significantly outperforms state-of-the-art baselines for various tasks including location prediction for tweets and requirement-aware location recommendation.
Androgen Receptor and the Testes Influence Hypertension in a Hybrid Rat Model

The objective of this study was to determine if males with a deficient androgen receptor would develop hypertension when crossed with a hypertensive parent Female King-Holtzman rats (n=15), heterozygous for the testicular feminization (Tfm) gene, were crossed with male spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), and blood pressure was measured weekly from 5–14 weeks in the F1 hybrid males. Approximately 50% of the F1 hybrid males were Tfm males and androgen receptor-deficient, and 50% were normal. Blood pressure in the parent King- Holtzman males, Tfms, and female rats was also followed for the same time period. The F1 normal male hybrids had a significantly higher (p<0.05) systolic blood pressure than the Tfm hybrid males after 12 weeks (195±8 versus 170±8 mm Hg, respectively). Blood pressure in the male and Tfm Holtzman rats was 120±5 mm Hg and 110±6 mm Hg, respectively. Castration lowered blood pressure by 38 mm Hg in the hybrid males and 27 mm Hg in the Tfm hybrids. Female F1 hybrids also showed a pressure rise above that of female Holtzman controls (155±6 mm Hg versus 110±6 mm Hg, p<0.01) but lower than the F1 males and Tfm hybrids. Ovariectomized females with testosterone implants did not show an elevation in blood pressure. Plasma electrolytes, norepinephrine, and cholesterol were not significantly different between normal and Tfm hybrid males. The results suggest that the presence of an androgen receptor and a testis-derived factor mediate the blood pressure rise in the hybrid males. A Y chromosome effect or sex-influenced locus may be involved since both the normal and Tfm males had significantly higher blood pressures than their female siblings.
AutoDietary: A Wearable Acoustic Sensor System for Food Intake Recognition in Daily Life

Nutrition-related diseases are nowadays a main threat to human health and pose great challenges to medical care. A crucial step to solve the problems is to monitor the daily food intake of a person precisely and conveniently. For this purpose, we present AutoDietary, a wearable system to monitor and recognize food intakes in daily life. An embedded hardware prototype is developed to collect food intake sensor data, which is highlighted by a high-fidelity microphone worn on the subject's neck to precisely record acoustic signals during eating in a noninvasive manner. The acoustic data are preprocessed and then sent to a smartphone via Bluetooth, where food types are recognized. In particular, we use hidden Markov models to identify chewing or swallowing events, which are then processed to extract their time/frequency-domain and nonlinear features. A lightweight decision-tree-based algorithm is adopted to recognize the type of food. We also developed an application on the smartphone, which aggregates the food intake recognition results in a user-friendly way and provides suggestions on healthier eating, such as better eating habits or nutrition balance. Experiments show that the accuracy of food-type recognition by AutoDietary is 84.9%, and those to classify liquid and solid food intakes are up to 97.6% and 99.7%, respectively. To evaluate real-life user experience, we conducted a survey, which collects rating from 53 participants on wear comfort and functionalities of AutoDietary. Results show that the current design is acceptable to most of the users.
Independent Effects of Testosterone on Lipid Oxidation and VLDL-TG Production

Low testosterone (T) levels in men have been shown to predict development of the metabolic syndrome, but the effects of T on lipid metabolism are incompletely understood. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study, 12 healthy, young males received gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist treatment 1 month prior to 3 of 4 trial days to induce castrate levels of T. On trial days, T gel was applied to the body containing either high or low physiological T dose or placebo. On the 4th trial day, participants constituted their own eugonadal controls. Each study comprised a 5-h basal period and a 3-h hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp. Short-term hypogonadism did not affect VLDL triglyceride (TG) secretion, nor did it affect VLDL-TG concentrations. It was, however, characterized by lower total lipid oxidation. In addition, acute rescue with high physiological T increased VLDL-TG secretion during both basal and clamp conditions. These data show that T can act through fast nongenomic pathways in the liver. In addition, the early hypogonadal state is characterized by decreased total lipid oxidation, but whether these changes represent early hypogonadal metabolic dysfunction warrants further investigations. T is not a major determinant of resting VLDL-TG kinetics in men.
Thoughts on the current management of acute aluminum phosphide toxicity and proposals for therapy: An Evidence-based review

The majority of aluminum phosphide (ALP) toxicity cases are suicidal attempts. Despite advances in critical care medicine, the mortality rate of ALP remains very high. Unfortunately, knowledge on the toxicokinetics of ALP is very low. An obsolete idea was proposed that inhibition of complex IV of cytochrome C oxidase is responsible for multiorgan dysfunction. However, based on human studies, this effect might be insignificant. Thus, a novel idea proposes that the main mechanism might be vascular wall integrity disruption. The low frequency of acute toxicity and unanswered questions about the toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics has led to leaden advances of novel treatments. The aim of this review was to evaluate problems regarding current treatment protocols and propose new ideas based on updated information. For this purpose, we reviewed all available articles on the management of ALP poisoning published to date. Considering failure of conventional therapies on maintaining systolic blood pressure, correcting acid-base disturbances, and support cardiac function, the previous treatment protocols have been overruled. However, repudiate of conventional treatments in this deadly condition is not without penalties for the health-care provider. The introduction of new therapies including refuse of gastric lavage with water-soluble compounds, administration of a high molecular weight colloidal solution for fluid resuscitation and termination using sodium bicarbonate, and vasoactive agents has been prospected to improve patient survival. This protocol is in early clinical evaluation; nevertheless, it appears to improve patient's survival; hence, future randomized trials should be performed to support their effectiveness.
Genetic Programming for Landmark Detection in Cephalometric Radiology Images

This paper describes the use of genetic programming to evolve object detection programs for craniofacial features in digital X-rays. The evolved programs use a feature set of pixel statistics of regions customised to the shapes of landmark idiosyncrasies. The features are obtained from a square input window centred on the landmark and large enough to contain key landmark features. The detection program is applied, in moving window fashion, across the X-ray and the outpu7t of the program is interpreted as the presence/absence of the landmark at each position. During training a weighted combination of the detection rate and the false alarm rate is used as the fitness function. The method was tested in 4 landmark points, ranging from relatively easy to very difficult. Detection performance on the easier points was excellent and the performance on the very difficult point was quite good and the results suggest that a more careful crafting of the regions shapes for the difficult point will lead to better detection. We believe that the methodology can be used successfully on other difficult real world detection problems.
Expression of myc‐family, myc‐interacting, and myc‐target genes during preimplantation mouse development

Previous studies indicated that members of the myc gene family may be essential for preimplantation development. Other studies revealed that preimplantation embryos lacking c‐myc, N‐myc, or L‐myc are viable, indicating that these genes are either not essential for preimplantation development or can be substituted for functionally by other myc gene family members. To investigate the possible role of these genes during preimplantation development, we determined the temporal patterns of expression of four members of the myc gene family, genes encoding myc‐associated proteins, and four putative MYC target genes. We observed a sequential pattern of myc gene expression, with the L‐myc mRNA expressed as a maternal transcript, the c‐myc mRNA expressed during the 4‐cell through morula stages, and the B‐myc mRNA expressed highly at the morula and blastocysts stages. B‐myc was the predominant family member expressed during preimplantation development. The mxi mRNA was not detectable and the mad mRNA was detectable only as a maternal transcript. The max mRNA, however, was expressed both as a maternal mRNA and as an embryonic message throughout most of preimplantation development. Three putative MYC target genes (Odc, cyclin E, and prothymosin‐α) were tarnscriptionally induced during the 2‐cell stage, and their mRNAs increased sharply in abundance during development to the morula and blastocyst stages. Another putative MYC target gene, cyclin A, was expressed both as a maternal mRNA and as an embryonic transcript. These data support the view that the expression of myc target genes may be supported initially through the expression of maternally inherited MYC proteins and corresponding mRNAs and that subsequent stage‐specific changes in expression of myc genes, myc‐associated genes, and myc target genes may control early differentiative events around the time of implantation. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 47:57–65, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Production and Reproduction of Gender and Sexuality in Legal Discourses of Asylum in the United States

I mmigration legislation acts like a border around national identity. Along with race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality are pivotal categories that immigration law and border control have employed to bolster both the domestication of women and an accompanying heternormative sexual partnering while excluding those who offer or represent alternative conceptions of these categories. To gain entrance, immigrants must present themselves as gendered and sexual beings recognizable (and acceptable) to immigration and court officials. Lawyers and advocacy groups assist petitioners in this process, sometimes helping them to either disguise or camouflage themselves in order to cross the line into acceptability. While these (re)constructions toward acceptability can open doors for the particular petitioner and for others in similar circumstances, they can also provide the basis for the universalization of the categories that inform the discourse around gender and sexual norms of the legislation itself. In this article, I will examine the ways in which an entry stalwart codified almost thirty years ago, the Refugee Act of 1980, has helped to manage what Alice Miller has called “migrating sexualities” (2005, 137). I am particularly interested in the relationship between sexuality and gender in the reading of the law. How do the courts interpret gender and sexuality
THE PICTURE SUPERIORITY EFFECT IN WORKING MEMORY FOR SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL ORDER

The picture superiority effect in spatial working memory refers to a better retention of the locations of objects or images compared to locations of words. The present research suggests that such effect extends to situations in which the items are serially presented. Participants were required to reproduce different series of icons or words either according to the original spatial configuration, or following the temporal sequence of presentation, or both these aspects together. Overall, both memory for spatial locations and for the temporal order were better with icons than with words. Furthermore, performance decreased when both the features had to be simultaneously retained, suggesting that we do not automatically integrate spatial and temporal information, but such binding requires attentional processing.